Solitary Vigil
by Parsec
Summary: [Sequel to 'Immortality Relapse', read it first!] Bubbles, all alone in the world, must take care of life's last hope...
1. Bulba

[NOTE: This fanfic is a short story that takes place after the end of one of my other fanfics, Immortality Relapse (which in turn was a sequel to Immortality Syndrome). While it's not 100% necessary to have read these, it helps, especially considering the setting.]

**__**

Solitary Vigil

By: Mark J. Hadley

Bubbles flew quickly across the sky, clutching a thermos to her chest, keeping it safe. She descended towards the ruined city below…buildings collapsed and broken, debris everywhere, and no sign of life, as always. As she descended towards where Townsville Park used to be, she caught sight of it again…the small, white flower that somehow managed to survive just as she did. The sight of it brought a smile to her face again.

She landed next to it and popped open the top of the thermos. She carefully knelt down next to the flower and tipped the thermos carefully, pouring water down around its base. "There ya go," she said. "A cool drink of water…'fact, I'm getting pretty thirsty too, now."

After she was done watering the flower, she stretched out on the ground and took a drink of water for herself. Wiping her mouth off, she set the thermos down and stared up at the sky. The clouds drifted slowly overhead, and she could imagine different shapes in them. She saw one shaped like a heart, another like bunny…but as she stared at the bunny-shaped cloud, with its long 'ears', the shape reminded her of someone else: Blossom, wearing her familiar hairbow that she always used to wear. She blinked her eyes a few times, to clear away the tears that started to come to them, and looked away from the sky until the cloud passed.

She could hardly believe it had only been a few days since the disaster, when that device of Mojo's design had been activated, sending out the wave of energy that killed everyone. Everyone, except for her, and this single flower in Townsville Park. All of them, gone in maybe a minute…every living thing on Earth. One moment, the planet was a world teeming with life, and in the next, it was a wasteland.

She wondered it that really was the case, though…if this one flower survived, perhaps something or someone else did, too…or maybe the device hadn't reached across the whole planet. She wanted to go look, but she didn't dare leave this flower unprotected. If anything were to happen to it, she knew that life would have _no_ chance to prosper. At least this way, there was still hope.

It was later on that first day that that she realized she was hungry. It was a thought that had worried her, because with nothing left alive, what would she eat? When she went through some of the ruined buildings in Townsville, however, she found that there _was_ still food. Apparently, the wave had no effect on it, since it wasn't alive. She collected as many cans of food as she could get her hands on, but didn't touch any of the perishables; they would spoil quickly anyway.

The day after, however, she noticed they _weren't_ spoiling. She hadn't the slightest idea why, but it didn't really matter. This meant that she would have plenty more food than she expected. It wasn't just the food, though…the bodies of everyone that were still lying around the town and in buildings were still perfectly intact. She morbidly expected them to start decomposing or _something_. But there was no change at all, not even the buzzing of flies. Of course there wouldn't be, though, since flies were all dead, just like everything else.

Still, she didn't like looking at them anymore, and so in a task that took several hours, she went through Townsville and gathered all the bodies up that she could find, from every building in the city. Outside the city limits, she dug a huge hole and carefully buried them all. She was on the verge of tears almost the entire time, but she felt it had to be done…and besides, what else was she going to do? They were all buried together to save time, except for one…she buried Professor Utonium in a separate grave, by himself. Burying him was one of the most difficult things she ever did, and she cried for nearly an hour straight after that.

And now, here she was, almost a day later, with the task done and nothing left to do. She cast a glance at the flower next to her, the only living companion she had in the world. "If only you could talk," she sighed. "I could really use someone to talk to. Do you mind if I just talk to you anyway?"

When she asked that, a small breeze blew through the park, and for a moment, the flower bobbed like it was nodding. She giggled slightly and said, "I'll take that as a 'yes'!" She laid down on her stomach, holding up her head in her arms and kicking her legs behind her a little as she said, "So, what do I call you? You need a name if I'm gonna talk to you…"

For a moment, she considered naming the flower 'Blossom', but quickly decided not to. She didn't want to be reminded of her that way. Thinking some more, she brightened and said, "I'll call you Bulba! That's a good flower name…don't you think?"

There was no answer, of course. She really wasn't expecting one, but she still imagined that if the flower _could_ talk, it would say that the name was lovely. "Okay, Bulba it is," she said. "I'll bet you're wondering why I'm being so nice to you…well, you're the world's last chance at life. If I can keep you safe, maybe one day you could grow and spread, and bring life back to the world again. And I _will_ keep you safe, Bulba…I promise…"

She felt more confident now and started to talk about the way Townsville used to be. As the day wore on, she told Bulba about everything…her sisters, the professor, all the crimefighting they used to do. It felt so good just for her to talk, and Bulba was a great listener. She continued talking for some time after that, even into the night.

* * * **Two Weeks Later** * * *

Bubbles hammered the last few nails into the contraption, then hovered back to take a look at it. It had taken her a couple of days to build, but she knew it would be worth it in the long run. The architecture was amateurish, but at least it worked. The long, trough-like duct ran into the city from a small lake in the woods nearby, supplying a steady stream of water whenever she needed it.

Wiping her forehead, Bubbles said, "Done! Whew…I'm hungry. Time for dinner…" She flew back into Townsville, heading for the park. She descended towards the section that held Bulba…an area about fifty feet in diameter had been cleared out around it, all of the dead grass and flowers removed, giving it plenty of room to grow once it needed to. Bubbles stopped near the edge of this circular area, heading over to the edge of her little aqueduct and filling the thermos with water from it.

She walked over to water the flower and said, "It's all done, Bulba! Now I don't have to leave all the time to get water." She carefully watered Bulba and said, "Yes, that _will_ make it easier, I _told_ ya so. I can keep an eye on you a lot better this way."

Taking a sip of the remaining water, she sat down for a moment to catch her breath from all of that work. It was still amazing to her that the whole contraption even worked. She grinned to herself…she was becoming quite the problem solver. If only the professor could see her now! She wondered if he would recognize her, though. She hadn't really _changed_ at all, but she stopped wearing her hair in pigtails and just had it hang freely in the back. Her clothes were starting to get worn out, too, with small rips and tears, and one of her shoes were missing.

She didn't have any replacements, though. Her old house was almost completely totaled from the initial tremor, and all of her clothes inside were ripped and torn even worse than the ones she was wearing. It was funny, too…she had half-considered trying to gather some sugar, spice, and everything nice, and just _creating_ someone else, so she wouldn't be so lonely. She couldn't, though; the professor's lab was destroyed, and a quick search found that all the beakers containing his Chemical X were smashed and lost for good.

Bubbles carefully started a small fire off to one side with her eyebeams, safely away from Bulba, and began cooking a fish over it. Only a few weeks ago, she would have been against the idea of eating another animal, having decided to be a vegetarian not too long before that. But at this point she figured, what's it going to matter? Besides, there was plenty of fish; the surface of the ocean was covered with them, floating belly-up. Just like everything else, they hadn't decomposed or spoiled.

At least she knew why, now. Without much to really do, she went to the library in Townsville to find something to read. Part of it was still intact, and she was able to look up a few things. Since microbacteria played a big part in decomposition, it was no wonder that nothing was breaking down, seeing as even single-celled life had been destroyed along with all other life. She wondered in the back of her mind if that meant the food would _never_ spoil. She also realized that it meant she would probably never get sick, either…no viruses or germs existed anymore, besides what her own body creates.

Bubbles carried the cooked fish with her as she flew over and sat down next to the flower again. She ate silently for a few moments, then grinned and said, "You're welcome, Bulba. I knew you'd like it; why do you think I worked on it for so long? This way, I can spend more time with ya."

She paused again to take another bite of fish and added, "You _do_ mean that much to me. I dunno what I'd do without you." Another pause, accompanied by a joyful smile, "Aww, that's sweet of you to say! I feel the same way…about…" She trailed off for a second as she saw something near the base of the flower: one of its leaves were bent a little.

Bubbles gasped and lifted the leaf up carefully, "Bulba! You didn't _tell_ me you were _hurt!_" As she examined the leaf, she shook her head, "No, it's not serious, you'll be fine. You should tell me these things right away if they happen…no, I _know_ it wasn't bad, but what if _was?_ Don't _scare_ me like that!"

She sighed in relief and sat back, lost in thought as she pondered over the past again. All in all, she was adapting to this new life pretty quickly, but she still missed everyone terribly. She thought, _Just to see another human being again…it would be so…so…I'd give anything…_

Bubbles looked over at Bulba, "Hm? Oh, I'm just thinking about them again. I told you all about my sisters already…yes, I still miss them. I wish you coulda met them, Bulba…" She closed her eyes to keep from crying, "No no, I'm fine…it's okay. Bulba, um…did _you_…ever have a…family?"

After a pause, she smiled and said, "You did?" She stared intently at Bulba, her full attention on the flower. Her smile gradually faded, and she looked sad again, "Ohhh, I'm so sorry…they were the other ones in the flowerbed, weren't they?…Okay, we can talk about something else…"

As she nibbled on what was left of her cooked fish and continued her talk with Bulba, she couldn't help but wonder…_What would I be doing right this moment if that device had never been turned on? Probably sitting around the dinner table…it's Saturday, that would have been casserole night. _She was happy for these memories. Even though she had been off the usual routine for a few weeks, she still remembered it fondly, and she knew that it was one of many memories that she would carry with her for the rest of her life…

* * * **One Month Later** * * *

Bubbles loaded the thermos into a bag of supplies, the thermos she had found so long ago and had with her almost since her lifestyle change. Inside the bag was a stockpile of food, enough to last her quite a while, plus a few other odds and ends she had managed to scrounge up: a flashlight, some batteries, a sleeping bag, and some wood in case she needed to start a fire.

She looked over herself to make sure everything was set. After her old clothes had worn themselves out, she went through some other clothes in a few buildings until she finally found a fair amount of clothing that fit her. Where she didn't care much for her appearance in the past, only a few weeks before she decided that it would probably be a good idea to stay clean, at the very least. She still had to explain to Bulba several times why she insisted on 'wasting water' by using it to clean.

She also rotated her new wardrobe, and washed them to keep them clean as well. Currently, she was wearing a light blue t-shirt with a heart on the front, dark jeans and sneakers, and a blue baseball cap. She closed up her bag of supplies and slung it over her shoulder, turning to the flower next to her and staring at it for a few moments silently.

"No, I'm not changing my mind, Bulba" she told it. "There could me more life out there, and I need to look for it. Trust me, you'll be fine…yes, the water supplier still works; we've been testing it for the past week, haven't we? I'll be back in a couple of days, that's all…no, just a couple of days! I promise."

Bubbles started to fly into the air and hesitated, looking down at the vulnerable-looking flower below. She frowned sadly and said, "No, please don't cry…I'm coming back. Don't worry, you have my promise, remember?" Before she could start flying away again, she stopped and spoke a little more sternly, "No, I _said_ you can't come with me! I'm not gonna risk digging you up…I'll be back, and I'll bring you some crisp, cool water from the mountains or something, okay?"

Before saying another word, she started off into the sky, waving and shouting, "G'bye! Seeya in a few days!" Then she was amongst the clouds…she couldn't see Bulba anymore, and for a moment, she cringed and almost turned around to fly back. _No_, she thought, _we need to look for other people. They could still be out there. Bulba will be okay._ She had been convincing herself for a while now that this was the right thing to do. The idea of leaving Bulba behind, unprotected, was a difficult decision, but she knew she had to make it sometime. She had gotten far too curious about the possibility of other survivors…

* * * **One Week Later** * * *

Bubbles desperately finished the last touches on a brace for Bulba: a stake sticking up from the ground with small ties around it to make sure the flower stood straight. "I'm sorry…I'm sorry…I'm sorry…" she repeated, over and over. She looked over the flower now that it was standing straight. The stem had, thankfully, not broken, but a few of the leaves were bent and out of shape, and one of the petals were missing. That was how she found it--lying on its side--when she got back from her trip.

The trip was pretty fruitless anyway. It took longer than she expected to go across various parts of the world quickly, looking for signs of life. There were obviously none. Cities were in ruins, much the same as Townsville was. Bodies still lined the streets, and still hadn't decomposed at all. Even crossing to the far side of the globe, she still couldn't find a thing. All her little trip seemed to do was confirm the truth. She and Bulba were alone.

Bubbles realized she would be back later than she said, but she didn't think it would matter. However, when she saw the condition Bulba was in, her heart nearly stopped in dread. It had to be because of a rainstorm or something. Bulba was still alive, but needed care badly. She went through her large collection of books as fast as she could, until she found one that gave her advice on how to deal with this situation. As she set it up, she prayed it would work.

Bulba _seemed_ all right, but she'd really only know in the coming days. "Please, get better," Bubbles whispered. "If you do, I swear I won't ever leave you again…" In any case, she realized that Bulba needed protection…better protection, if she hoped to survive the elements. Going through her collected supplies, she lifted out one of the notebooks she found, plus a pen.

She flipped through it quickly, searching for a blank page. Most of the first section of the notebook were filled with doodles and drawings…many of them were of the professor, or her sisters, or other people she knew. She had also considered writing a little account once of everything that happened to her, but she figured…why bother? Who's going to read it? She finally came to a blank page and ripped it out, then started drawing up plans…

* * * **One Week Later** * * *

Autumn was already here, even though it was impossible to tell just by looking. Normally, Bubbles would have expected to see leaves on the ground, in vivid orange, yellow, and brown colors. The trees looked just the same as always, though. Still, it wasn't the fact that it was autumn that really concerned her; there was something far more important to celebrate.

She had set aside the plans she was working on for the past week and spent the entire day relaxing with Bulba. "Know what today is?" she asked. "Today's my birthday. I'm seven years old now." She mentally corrected herself: _I'm only two years old. I was born at the age of five…oh well…two, seven, what did it matter? I was created two years ago today, that's what's important._

Bubbles nodded to Bulba, "Yes…you're right. It's my sisters' birthday too. I…I almost forgot about that…" She felt sad about it…besides their original creation, they had only celebrated a birthday together once. She remembered the huge stack of gifts…she remembered that they never really got a chance to open hardly any of them, thanks to Mojo, Princess, and a few others. But what she _did_ remember was that it was one of the happiest times for the three of them.

She decided to celebrate a little, and broke out a box containing some candy. It wasn't like it was rare, since she could pretty much find it anywhere now, but she had been restraining herself from eating it too often. She remembered her previous candy addiction that she and her sisters developed and knew that the last the she wanted was to lose control like that again. It wasn't much her own safety she was concerned with, but Bulba's; if she became too neglectful, Bulba would suffer.

Still, Bubbles allowed a small luxury now and then, and her birthday definitely gave her cause. She popped a few of the small pieces of candy into her mouth and leaned back, sighing contentedly and savoring the flavor. _There may not be much of it left,_ she thought, _but life is good…_

She looked over at Bulba and giggled, "You think so? You've grown too, I think…" After a few more moments of listening, she broke into peals of laughter, "Hehehehaha! That's funny! You're good at jokes, Bulba…tell another, tell another!" She listened, and then laughed again. _This_ is how she wanted her birthday to be: full of happiness and enjoyment…

* * * **Two Months Later** * * *

The weather grew colder. Bulba still stood strong, having thankfully gotten over its near-death encounter from so long ago. There were many rains after that, and Bubbles had to shield Bulba with whatever she could find; she didn't want to risk the delicate flower being destroyed by the downpour. The rainy weather would be over soon, though, and it would be time for snow instead…a death sentence for the flower if she didn't find it some kind of protection.

She had plans for that, however, and it was almost fully constructed. Getting the materials for it was the hard part…she had to go from building to building and look for just the right sizes of steel and unbroken glass. That alone took over a month and a half, and finally she could start assembling it.

The frame went up first. It didn't need to be very large, but she made it large enough to hold all of her supplies also. She used her eyebeams to weld parts together where necessary and worked to create a sound structure that wouldn't shake down or be blown over. It was coming along nicely, but it was also getting colder by the day. She worked hard, hoping to finish it in time, and her hard work finally paid off. Now, it was time for the final touches…she placed the panels of glass across the frame, making sure they were secured.

She threw a scarf around herself to protect against the cold and flew back to admire her handiwork. It was rather simple, but it had to be. The greenhouse would be just the thing to keep Bulba safe from the winter, as well as all of her supplies. It was time for a final test…she took a deep breath and blew a strong jet of air at the structure, simulating a heavy wind. It creaked a little, but stood firm; no rattling, nothing came loose…it was perfect.

She giggled and flew down, sliding open the little door to the greenhouse and going inside. She had built it right around Bulba, who was in the center of the greenhouse, looking comfortable. Bubbles held her arms out like she was showing off the place and said happily "Well, what do you think? It's all for you, Bulba!"

After a moment, she clapped her hands and said, "I'm glad you like it! Hey, why don't we play a game?…Sure, we can do that one again, you're good at that one…" She sat down in front of the flower and said, "I'm thinking of a number from one to a hundred…no, higher…higher…lower…"

* * * **One Month Later** * * *

The snow was piled up high outside the greenhouse, yet it remained nice and warm within. Bubbles' idea had worked perfectly; she ran several metal bars along the inside of the greenhouse's frame, and when she needed to, she gave one spot a strong blast with her eyebeams. The metal would heat up and spread throughout this extra, inside frame, and would glow with a soft orange glow, radiating heat. The sunlight also provided even more heat during the day.

It was night at the moment, however. Bubbles was laying on her sleeping bag next to Bulba, staring up through the glass roof at the stars. "Want to know my favorite star, Bulba?" she asked, pointing. "I like that one, right there…it's really bright and beautiful. Hehehe, you're right, just like you!" Putting her arm back down, she sighed happily and said, "So which one is your favorite?"

Bubbles listened and studied the sky some more silently. She said, "You're right about that one…it's lovely, isn't it? That one's…" She lost her gaze in the sky and just sat for a while. Besides the slight howl of the wind outside, everything was perfectly quiet.

Snapping back to her senses, Bubbles said, "What? Oh…I'm just thinking about them again…yes, again. Buttercup and I used to go up on the roof to watch the stars sometimes. I remember one time when Blossom came looking for us, and when she found us, she just plunked right down on the roof and watched the stars along with us. Buttercup liked that big bright star over there…" She pointed, but then shifted back to another star, "…but that one…your favorite…was Blossom's favorite, too. She loved that star. It's just funny…you reminded me about it, all over again…"

She sighed…there was nothing to do. She had already read all the books she collected, some of them two or three times, though she didn't have the patience to read any of the fictions. The problems that the characters faced in those stories seemed so…miniscule compared to her own. Plus, the more she read about people, the more lonesome she got. She mostly stuck with books that could teach her useful skills, or occasionally a historical book, because even though she realized history was meaningless with no one to teach it to, at least she still had _something_ left to remember everyone by.

But that didn't leave her with much to do right now. "Bulba, what do you feel like doing?" she asked. "…No, I don't know. I don't…okay, that was kind of a stupid idea, I admit it." She sat up, looking at the flower, "All right…_all right_, I _said_ I was sorry about that, do you have to keep bringing it up? I _promised_ I wouldn't leave again, and I'm _not_…I know, I _know_, but I won't this time!" Her voice raised, "_I said, I WON'T!"_

The pitch of her voice caused the glass enclosure to tremble momentarily, and she clamped her hands over her mouth…a little louder, and it might have shattered. She quickly said in a softer voice, "I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to yell…" She waited, and added, "No, it's all right…it's all right, I forgive you too…"

Bubbles picked up a small blanket, wrapping it carefully around the very bottom of the flower for warmth, and said, "G'night, Bulba…" She laid back on her sleeping bag and slowly closed her eyes. _I'll be glad when the winter's over with,_ she thought…_I really want spring to come…_

* * * **Four Months Later** * * *

It had been a rough winter, but the greenhouse still stood. Springtime weather had come, although Bubbles thought it felt really odd without seeing any green leaves, or birds flying in the air…it was just as still as any other time. At least it wasn't snowing anymore; she wasn't sure how long she could stand being cooped up inside.

But now that it was spring, she knew it was the best time to get seeds from Bulba. Only, there were no bees to pollinate it. A while before, Bubbles flipped through one of her books, looking up exactly what she needed to do. Armed with this knowledge, she did the job herself…she carefully removed pollen from some of its stamens, ensuring Bulba that everything was all right and she wasn't going to hurt them in any way. From there, she was able to move the pollen onto its pistil, making sure that everything was just the way it should be. Her task was completed; Bulba would do the rest.

That was some time before, and now that spring had fully arrived, Bubbles was ecstatic to see that seeds had come in. "Bulba, you're going to be a mommy!" she exclaimed. "Congratulations!…hehehe, you're welcome!" She blushed a little and added, "Well, yeah, I guess I _did_ help a little. Hey, is it all right if I take the seeds so I can plant 'em?…Yes, I promise I'll be careful."

Bubbles removed the seeds from Bulba and gave a glance around the greenhouse. There was more than enough space for her to plant them all. She carefully poked a hole in the ground, just deep enough, and planted a seed into each one, covering them up and packing the dirt around them. _I can't believe it,_ she thought…_if these seeds come up, everything we've worked for will all start to come together. More life…and if all of them give seeds, we could have life returning to this area in no time…_

The job was done, and Bubbles carefully sprinkled some water over the spots where she had planted the seeds. She was excited; it would take some time before they sprouted, but she had already waited about nine months since the beginning of the whole ordeal, and she was prepared to wait longer.

Some chimes went off outside the greenhouse. Bubbles said, "I'll be right back!" and flew out to check on them. On a pole outside were some carefully-balanced wind chimes that she had set up…it acted as a nice advance warning for heavy weather patterns. Off in the far distance, she could see storm clouds approaching slowly. _Looks like I'll be staying inside tonight,_ she thought. _I'd better go see how big this storm is._

She poked her head back into the greenhouse and told Bulba where she was going, then flew off, high above the sky, to get a good clear view of the clouds. She became a little worried as she flew closer; the storm didn't look that rough, but she saw some other clouds behind it, and those looked even worse. And what's more, that storm, although probably a day or two off, looked absolutely huge.

_Hurricane, _she thought, suddenly afraid. _I don't want to risk moving Bulba, but I'm gonna have to…no wait, I can't! What about the seeds? I have to protect them all…maybe if I just put some supports up around the greenhouse…I've gotta hurry, though!_ She dashed into what still remained of the buildings, in search of building materials to reinforce her little structure…despite how well it stood up against the elements so far, it seemed so small and defenseless against something as mighty as a hurricane. Bubbles hoped she could protect it in time…

* * * **Two Days Later** * * *

"Just hold on, Bulba!" Bubbles shouted. "Everything's gonna be fine!" The winds howled loudly outside the greenhouse. Pieces of debris from the ruined city were whirled about outside, and the whole greenhouse creaked under the enormous wind pressure…but thanks to the supports Bubbles had quickly put in, it stood fast. Still, it was scary…outside their little enclosure, everything was in total chaos.

Bubbles shook fearfully, but didn't stray from Bulba's side for a second. "I-I know, Bulba," she said. "I'm scared too…" _Please, hurricane, just go away,_ her thoughts begged, but the winds outside actually seemed to get worse instead of better.

Part of a whole car flew by right next to the glass, and Bubbles suddenly realized a new danger: what if a big piece of debris struck the greenhouse and broke through the glass? Should she just stay inside and hope for the best, or go outside and try to stop any debris from hitting? She figured that Bulba must have understood the danger, too, because she listened for a moment and said, "If you're sure, then I'll go…" She nodded and flew up to the greenhouse door, taking a deep breath.

She slid the door open and fought her way outside against the wind, sliding the door shut behind her. The wind was so heavy…it took almost all of her strength just to keep from being blown away. Holding her arm up in front of her face, she pushed against the wind, positioning herself between the greenhouse and the direction the wind was coming from. _If anything tries to get past me_, she thought, _I can stop it from here._

It was a good thing she decided to, because a section of wall from a building was flying right for it. She pulled her fist back and punched it as it approached, shattering it into pieces, which flew off harmlessly. A second later, an old lamppost started whirling through the air for it; Bubbles caught the lamppost and wielded it like a baseball bat. As smaller pieces of debris approached, she batted them away with it quickly.

_So far, so good,_ she thought. _If I can just keep this up, I'll…_ Her thoughts were interrupted when a small, fist-sized rock hurtled through the air towards her, and she didn't notice it until it was too late. The rock glanced off the side of her head…she wasn't hurt by it, but the blow caused her to reel, losing her balance, and the wind caught her and pushed her back through the air. Reflexively, she jammed the end of the lamppost into the ground and hung on.

The winds picked up…the lamppost was staying firm, but Bubbles had to use all her strength just to hang onto it and keep from being swept away in the winds. As she tried to pull herself up to get a better handhold, she gasped as she saw a whole car tumbling across the landscape from the edge of the park, heading straight for the greenhouse. She cringed and tried to blast it with her eyebeams, but she could barely see straight with all the rain and debris striking her face, and missed wildly.

The car slammed into the side, shattering most of the glass and breaking through some of the supports. In the next gust of wind, the walls of the greenhouse were uprooted, flying apart. Everything that was inside was almost immediately blown away: food, clothing, supplies…Bulba was still planted in the ground in the center of where the greenhouse, but the poor flower was flapping in the wind and rain, lying almost flat sideways.

"Bulba!" Bubbles shouted, "Hang on!" She looked around, trying to find some way of getting over to the flower without being blown away by the hurricane, but the wind was just too strong. In horror, she saw a few of Bulba's petals come loose, carried off immediately through the air.

She was about to shout again when it happened. The flower was uprooted, tearing up from the ground and hurtling through the air. Over her shoulder, Bubbles watched it slowly disappear into the distance and shrieked, "_Bulba!! NOOOO!!"_ At that moment, her hands slipped and she lost her grip…the wind immediately seized her and sent her plunging through the air, towards the side of a building. She cried out, "_Bul--_…" before her head struck against the side of the building's concrete wall, knocking her unconscious…

* * * **Three Hours Later** * * *

Bubbles came to, leaning up against the side of the building, her head aching from the blow. The air was still, with neither wind nor rain, and the sun was shining brightly from the scattered clouds above. The surroundings seemed to be even more of a mess than they were before, if it were possible. Puddles of water were everywhere, reflecting the light from the sun. The hurricane was over…it had come and gone, leaving its mark on the land.

Curling her legs up and holding her head in pain for just a moment, she broke into tears and slowly buried her head in her arms, sobbing, "No…Bulba…come back…" She wept for a long time after that, just sitting in that spot, not moving, in mourning for her poor lost flower, the only friend she had left in the world. Now that Bulba was gone, she was truly alone…

* * * **Two Weeks Later** * * *

Bubbles carried on with her life, listless and saddened. None of it seemed to make sense anymore to her. Still, she stayed by the park, near the place where Bulba had once been, supplying water to the soil around it. The seeds she had planted might still have been okay, even after the hurricane. It was indeed the absolute last chance that life would have.

She spoke not a single word for the past two weeks, not even to herself. She didn't read, didn't play, she just sat, and occasionally ate. Her clothing was once again getting ragged and torn, but she didn't care. She just waited.

On this day, though, she went to go water the soil again, and blinked a few times, spotting something in the dirt. She knelt down and carefully brushed some of the soil aside…what she saw made her heart leap. A tiny green sprout was growing…she was right, the seeds managed to make it. With a little more fervor, she checked the surrounding soil, and was overjoyed…at least a dozen other flowers were coming up too.

She giggled a little, giddy with excitement, and suddenly flew into the air, thrusting her arms out and howling out in pure joy, "_YEAHHHH!!_" She was incredibly happy…_They made it they made it they made it!_ she thought. _I can't believe it…they're alive! I'm not alone anymore! They're ALIVE!_

She flew back to the ground and lied down, facing the tiny buds and saying cheerfully, "Hi! I'm Bubbles…nice to meet you!" She knew they were too young to answer, so she just continued talking to them, "You're going to help bring life back to the world, little ones…just like your mommy! I knew your mommy…I wish you coulda met her…she was one in a million…"

As Bubbles continued to talk to them, she told them about everything she had told Bulba so long ago, about her sisters, about the people of the world…everything. She was sad that Bulba had been lost, but was happy that that bright little flower had succeeded. Thanks to the seedlings, life was secure once again, and Bubbles knew that in the future, when she would eventually watch generations of the flower spreading life back to every corner of the planet, each flower would remind her of Bulba. They would remind her of their struggles, their experiences, and their triumphs…and that despite any hardships, life would always thrive in this world.

**__**

THE END


	2. Undo

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 2: "Undo"

Bubbles flew swiftly from flower to flower, giving them their usual watering. It was only a short time after they first came up, and they were growing so fast! She couldn't be more proud of them…they were each beautiful already, and she knew that as soon as they were in bloom, they would be as beautiful as Bulba was. That day wouldn't be far off if they continued at their current pace.

She sat down and smiled, then picked up a book she had sitting next to her, flipping it open to the page she had left off at. It was the professor's journal, recovered from their home a while back. She hadn't really read any of it in the past, since it was far too complicated for her to understand, but she finally thought she'd at least _try _to read it. There was enough in the descriptions that she could at least get the gist of what he was saying, even if the details were lost on her.

What she had read already was pretty fascinating. The list of inventions and discoveries that the professor worked on over the years was huge, ranging from chemical formulas to mechanical constructs to biological research. There was even an entry in there for the girls' creation, which brought a tear to her eye as she read it…the professor seemed so happy writing it.

From that point on, she saw a lot of familiar entries, things that she had witnessed the professor working on herself. She smiled with some bemused fondness at the section mentioning the Powerpuff DyNaMo. Also, the section with Beebo brought back memories. It was amazing that this happened not too long ago, yet it seemed like ages ago already. _Another world,_ she thought to herself.

She chuckled as she hit another entry that amused her, about the professor's Time Portal he had invented. Bubbles recalled when he first unveiled it…Mojo used it and almost prevented the Powerpuff Girls from ever being created. But thankfully, they were able to stop him. It was a close call, though! Bubbles sometimes imagined what it would have been like to fade out from existence…probably not much different than Death itself, she figured.

As she puzzled over these thoughts, she came to a journal entry that interested her further:

__

I finally got around to converting the old DyNaMo storage bay as a place to store a lot of my older inventions. They just kept piling up, and we had so much extra room there. I know I told the girls I had taken down that section of the lab, but I couldn't bear to, especially considering that one day the girls might come up against something where they would need the DyNaMo again. So I merely concealed the elevator, and turned the entire bay into a sort of vault. The access panel is behind the picture of Einstein. Password is the name of Bubbles' stuffed toy that she loves so much.

Bubbles set down the journal. _I wonder if that section of the lab withstood the tremors,_ she thought. _Well, I might as well go find out._ She stood up and said to the flowers, "I'll be back soon! I have to run to the house and check on something…" With that, she took to the skies, soaring back in the direction of her old home.

* * *

The Utonium household was still demolished as always, and sifting through the rubble, Bubbles made her way into the lab. The picture of Einstein was still hanging up on the wall, just barely, although a little crooked. She pushed it aside and found a metal panel embedded into the wall, which slid open easily. A keypad was underneath, and remarkably, it lit up with power once the panel had been fully opened.

_Let's see, _Bubbles thought. She typed 6-2-8-4, spelling out O-C-T-I. When she did, she heard a rumbling sound, and took a step back involuntarily. The wall slowly slid open, revealing the interior of an elevator. With a big smile, she went inside, thinking, _Heh…all this time, and the professor _still_ has a few surprises left in store for me…_

Once inside, Bubbles pressed the only button on the panel inside, and the doors closed. The elevator descended slowly, heading towards the chambers beneath the lab. She fidgeted a little in anticipation…it was exciting, not knowing what she was going to find down here. This was one of the most interesting things to happen to her in months. She wondered if she'd find anything to help make survival even easier for her and the flowers.

Eventually, the elevator came to a stop, and the doors slid open. She flew out from it, into a darkened room. Feeling around on the wall, she found a light switch and flipped it. As the room became flooded with light, she realized it _was_ the chamber where the DyNaMo used to be stored, and indeed, the DyNaMo itself was still in its original place. But now, the room also contained boxes and stacks of equipment of all shapes and sizes. She was overjoyed; this part of the lab was still intact!

Without hesitation, she went through some of the equipment. All of his chemical experiments were being stored in a single place, so she went over these first. Each formula was clearly labeled, but unfortunately she didn't find what she was looking for: Chemical X. She was a little dejected by this, but continued looking for other useful items anyway.

While she was moving around some of the equipment, she made a shocking discovery. She slid one of the enormous computer banks to one side and froze…there, she saw something with a cloth draped over it. Probably just another piece of equipment, but the shape looked oddly familiar. She carefully pulled the sheet off, and was astounded by probably the greatest find in the lab: the professor's Time Portal.

Circling around it, she examined it cautiously. It looked like it was still intact. She fiddled with one of the controls until she found a power reading, and saw that the thing still had power…not much, probably enough for one use. _I can't believe it,_ she thought. _After all this time, it still works! But this means…if I can send myself back to any point in the past… _The possibilities slowly began to occur to her. _…I could undo everything! The big disaster…I could prevent it from ever happening! Then I could return to a future that's changed for the better!_

With excitement, she picked up the Time Portal, taking care not to damage it, and carried it back to the elevator. If she was going to pull this off, she'd have to plan it out ahead of time and take careful precautions. This was probably the greatest opportunity she's had to set things right once again, and she'd only get one chance at it…

* * *

Back at the field, Bubbles finished the last of her preparations, putting her hair back into its pigtails like she used to wear. She had already spend some time mending one of her old outfits, and now she looked perfectly 'normal', like she did back before the incident. _If anyone sees me,_ she figured, _I won't draw as much attention this way_.

She finished with her hair and knelt down by the little bed of flowers smiling and asking, "How do I look? This is what I useta look like a year ago. Okay, lemme go over the plan one more time with you…" She started drawing a diagram in the dirt as she spoke, "I'm gonna go back here and look for the best way to stop this thing from happening. It's the day before all the trouble began, so it should give me plenty of time." Pointing to a section of the diagram, she explained, "I'll arrive over here, outside of Townsville, so that no one will notice me. Then I can go in and figure out what to do from there."

She already figured out how to work the controls of the Time Portal thanks to the professor's journal, which contained a detailed description. Apparently, the professor had even added a timed 'reopen' function, which will open the portal again after a certain amount of time so that the subject can return. This way, she didn't need to have someone on this end of the portal, and wouldn't get stuck.

Now she was ready. She manipulated the controls and set them for her destination time and place, and a field of static appeared in the open window of the portal. She gave the flowers a quick glance and said, "Wish me luck!" then looked back at the device. Taking a deep breath, she plunged through it, into the 5th Dimension…

* * *

The portal opened up in the air, and Bubbles emerged, shaking off the effects of her trip. She rubbed her eyes for a second, waiting until everything came back into focus. As it did, the sight that met her eyes was overwhelming. Townsville rose up in the distance, skyscrapers gleaming brilliantly in the sunlight, not broken or toppled like they were in her time. The field she was in was outside of the city limits…there was a slight breeze, rustling the blades of grass below her, and she heard the chirping of birds in the air.

Descending quickly to the ground, she lied down on her belly with her arms and legs stretched out, as though trying to hug the whole Earth. As her hands ran through the blades of grass, tears fell from her eyes. _Life,_ she thought. _A world filled with life…oh, how I missed it…_

She lay like that for a short while before she remembered her task at hand. Flying towards the city, she felt a little shaky, since she knew she'd find people there—living people—and had no idea what to think about it. She had tried to prepare herself for this moment, but when she saw the first of them, some old man walking along a sidewalk, she ended up flying over and hugging him tightly in tears. The man was confused, and asked, "Bubbles?"

Her voice came out as shaky as she felt as she said, "H-hi mister…" It was the first time in many months she had spoken to a living person.

The man looked confused, "Is there…anything I can help you with?"

"No, I-I'm fine…" Bubbles assured him, and she finally managed to pry himself away from him, flying deeper into the city. She was so happy that she felt like screaming for joy, but didn't…instead, she just flew along with a smile plastered on her face. _It's incredible,_ she thought. _It's been forever…hearing another person's voice that's not just on a tape recorder or movie or something. Hearing another human being talking to me, answering me…_

Her thoughts were interrupted by what happened next. A gasp seized up in her throat as she saw a familiar pink trail of light curve across the sky. It stopped, then changed directions directly towards her. Bubbles was paralyzed…she didn't know what to think or do, as the figure came to a stop in front of her.

"Hey, Bubbles," Blossom said, smiling at her. "I thought you were staying home tonight…change your mind?"

Bubbles stared back silently, trying to think of something to say, but it was impossible to focus. _Blossom_, she thought. _It's really you…I can't believe it…look at you, you're still so happy now…_ She absently managed to answer, "…Yes…" then shook herself out of her thoughts and added, "Uh, yeah, I…I felt like…uh…getting some fresh air…"

"Okay," Blossom said, nodding. "I was on my way to see the Mayor. I'll catch up with you later!" She waved briefly, then took off back into the city.

Bubbles watched her go, and smiled to herself. _I have to succeed,_ she thought. _I have to succeed…if I do, I'll have Blossom back, and Buttercup, and everyone else…_ Now that she saw her sister again, she truly realized how much she missed them, and became focused on her goal once again. _To prevent this from ever happening, I have to go straight for the one who caused all the trouble in the first place…_ Refreshed, and knowing exactly what she needed to do, Bubbles flew further into the city, a clear destination in mind…

* * *

Mojo Jojo finished tightening a bolt on the Robo-Jojo he was constructing, and wiped his forehead. "Whew! This is a tremendous amount of work, but it will be worth it when it is completed, for this design will undoubtedly bring about the demise of those acursed Powerpuff Girls!" He took a few strides over to a computer console and started typing at it, "Not much longer before this becomes operational…"

He didn't get the chance, though, for at that moment, Bubbles burst in through the roof of his observatory hideout. Mojo spun around to look at her, shocked. "What?! What are you doing here?"

Bubbles looked across Mojo's lab, and her eyes fell on the Robo-Jojo he was constructing. She narrowed her eyes in fierce hatred as the sight of it brought back so many memories. _That's the one, all right, _she realized. "What am I doing here?" Bubbles exclaimed. "It's all your fault, Mojo! _All_ of it! You and your stupid robot, with its stupid Duranium sawblades! You caused _everything!!_ You want to know what I'm doing here? I'll _show _you what I'm doing here!!"

Before Mojo could stop her, Bubbles flew up to the giant robot and started pummeling it with punches and kicks. Mojo waved his hands and protested, "No no no!" but could do nothing else except watch. In no time, the entire thing had been ripped apart and smashed to bits. As the dust cleared from it, there was nothing remaining of the Robo-Jojo but a pile of busted equipment.

As Bubbles smiled in triumph at her handiwork, Mojo growled, "Curse you, Bubbles! That was to be my greatest plan yet to defeat you…how on Earth did you know I was buildi—…"

Bubbles had already taken off through the roof again. As she distanced herself from the observatory, a slow smile crept across her face, and she started to laugh. _It's about time to get back…I did it! I put an end to this once and for all! I can't wait to get back, to see the new future I've created! I can't wait!! Blossom… Buttercup… Professor… I'm coming!!_

* * *

Bubbles emerged from the time portal and glanced around. Her expression slowly fell as she did…the portal was still sitting in the cleared area of the ruins of Townsville, near the patch of flowers she had been taking care of. Everything was still the same, right down to her pile of supplies she had collected.

"But…but…" she whispered softly, "…but I thought…" She quickly looked back at the time portal. It shut down, it's final energy spent, deactivating for good. Bubbles just gaped, not knowing what to think. "But what…went wrong? I…I thought I destroyed the robot…"

Sitting down weakly on the ground, she started to think about it. _Maybe,_ she thought…_maybe the Time Portal just pulled me back to my own time. Yes, that's it! It wouldn't be set up to take me back from the new future I made, so it pulled me back to mine. So…I'm still stuck in this version of history. Well, at least I'm glad to know that there's another timeline out there where everyone's still alive. I may not have saved my world, but I saved another._

Bubbles lay back, staring up at the clouds in the sky, and smiled, content that somewhere, Blossom and Buttercup were safe. And she was glad to have seen Blossom again, back when she was happy, the Blossom she remembered best. She slowly closed her eyes and sighed. She thought, _It's too bad I didn't bring back some animals or something with me, but I really didn't expect to be coming back here. That's okay. I'm still happy that I made a difference…_

* * *

Mojo stared down at the pile of broken machinery in his lab and muttered under his breath, "Curses…this will set back my plans. Well, no matter…I still have the blueprints for this brilliant Robo-Jojo design, so I can just start its construction over from the beginning and rebuild it, and thus put it back together for use." He glanced at a clock on the wall…evening was drawing near. "It may take into the late hours of the morning, but I shall succeed, and only be slightly off-schedule."

As he started scavenging useful components from the scrap heap, he thought about something aloud, "Although…something puzzles me. Powerpuff Bubbles mentioned Duranium sawblades…this Robo-Jojo design was not equipped with any such thing…" He rubbed his chin, "…and yet, it's…it's brilliant…yes, that's it! A blade made of Duranium would be able to cut through anything, including the girls' overly damage-resistant skin! Yessss, this could mean their downfall…sleep well this evening, Powerpuff Girls, for tomorrow morning, you shall meet your demise! _Muahahahahahaa!!_"

**__**

THE END


	3. Guilt

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 3: "Guilt"

Far beneath the earth, he lie dormant, desperately trying to gather the energy he needed in order to fully awaken again. Not that he was completely unaware of what was going on…he was aware even while asleep, almost like a dream-awareness. Nevertheless, he was weak…if only there were a greater source of energy for him. Still, he was able to gather little by little. It might take months, maybe even years, but eventually it would succeed…it was only a matter of time…

* * *

The greenhouse that Bubbles had constructed for the bed of flowers was far better than her last one. It was sturdy and strong, and large enough to cover a wide stretch of land, in anticipation of many more flowers to come. Right now, there were only a dozen of them, but they had already each given seeds, now that it was spring again. These, she had already planted. The idea of even more being added to this little family made her feel overjoyed.

The dozen flowers that she had now each had a name. This worried her, because thanks to the seeds, there would be over a hundred of them once they came up, and that seemed like a lot of names to come up with, let alone remember. Sitting down between two of them, she asked, "Sophie…Christie…you'll help me come up with names, right?" Then, smiling, added, "I knew you would…hey, yeah, those are _great_ names! Yes, we'll use them all…"

Glancing up at the position of the sun, she said, "Almost time for lunch. I'll be _right_ back…and Sophie, make sure that Jade and Laurie don't argue again while I'm gone, ok? Thanks!" She took off, and made a beeline for "home".

She had long since cleared out the wreckage from her old home. It was pretty much an empty lot, almost, although she occasionally came back for cold water, since the generator in the lower part of the professor's lab was still operational, and she was able to run the refrigerator into its power supply. Opening the refrigerator, she pulled out her trusty thermos and took a sip of the chilled water inside. Wiping off her mouth, she decided that she felt like trying something different for lunch. Returning the thermos to the refrigerator, she went over to a stack of books, going through it and looking for one of the cookbooks that had belonged to the professor.

She stopped at one of the books…a photo album. Staring at the cover for a few seconds, she realized that, even though she found this book months ago, she had never opened it. She was almost afraid to, for some reason. But something made her change her mind…she determined that it had been long enough, so she very slowly opened it up.

One of the first pictures was a photo of the professor and the girls, taken not long after their creation. They were so young-looking in the picture, and so happy. Turning the pages, she viewed photo after photo…the four of them going on a trip, visiting the museum…a photo of Bubbles asleep in bed, clutching Octi to herself…a picture of Blossom and Buttercup playing a board game, and laughing…

Bubbles almost couldn't take it anymore. Tears began to fall from her eyes, onto the album, and she closed them and looked away, shutting the album. _I miss them…oh, I miss them so much…Blossom, Buttercup, Professor…wherever you are, I miss you…_

* * *

"_That's it!_" he shouted, his deep, darkened voice echoing through the small chamber that held him. "Yes…_yes!!_ I have the power again! It is _mine!_ After so long!" He straightened up, waking from his hibernation, and stretched out his arms to absorb the energy that was trickling in.

"Hmm…still not very much," he mused, tapping a claw to his chin. Then he chuckled, his voice rising in pitch, "Well, I'll just have to take matters in my _own_ hands, then…" Laughing louder and swirling his arms around himself, he was surrounded by a plume of red smoke, and vanished…

* * *

As she was caught up in thoughts about her sisters, Bubbles suddenly noticed something…the shadows cast across this section of the lab began to stretch and grow, like they had a life of their own. She looked around in a combination of curiosity and fear, and as she did, a voice whispered from the darkness, "You miss them, don't you?"

_What? _she thought…_Where's that voice coming from? That's…that's impossible…everyone's dead…_ She called out, "Wh-who's there?"

As soon as she said this, a bright plume of smoke burst up from the ground. She shielded her eyes, then watched closely as a form took shape. A familiar form, grinning wickedly at her. While she stood motionless in shock, he spoke, his voice echoing in a melodic tone, "Surprised, little one? You seem speechless…"

Bubbles finally found her voice, and it came out as a whisper, "Him…"

"Yesssss," he said, taunting, "Poor Bubbles…all alone in the world, with no one left for you…_nothing_ left for you…only to live out your days, until your inevitable end, when you…"

He didn't get to finish his statement, because at that moment, Bubbles did something he didn't expect. In a flash of blue, she tackled him, knocking him off of his feet, but her face didn't show anger…it showed glee. She squealed, "Oh my gosh, it's so good to see you!!"

"Wh…huh?" Him said, totally flabbergasted.

Bubbles didn't say anything else, she just hugged Him tightly and wouldn't let go. _Someone to talk to!_ she thought. _I don't care if it's the ultimate evil, it's someone else alive! I'm so happy!!_

"Aagh!" he shouted, and for a second, his form seemed to flicker. Bubbles let go of him, confused, and he staggered back slightly, holding his head and groaning, "Uhhh…"

"What's wrong?" Bubbles asked.

Gritting his teeth, he growled, "If you _must_ know, I'm not quite at full power right now. And that hurts…"

Bubbles glanced at her arms, and said, "Sorry I hugged you so hard…"

"No no, no that," he said, waving a claw. "Your cheerfulness. It saps my energy." He sank down to the ground, sitting. Talking back in his higher tone of voice, he said, "I need sorrow…anguish…pain…not this…"

"What…" Bubbles started to say, but then she figured it out. Narrowing her eyes slightly, she said, "It makes you stronger, doesn't it? All the bad things…"

Nodding, Him explained, "I draw strength from it. Why do you think I was so powerful? All the people on the Earth supplied me with more than I'd ever need. I was particularly strong after that little incident that went on between you and your sisters…"

"Y-you mean, when we…" Bubbles wondered, trailing off.

"Yes," he said, smiling fondly at the memory. "It was delightful, watching all the pain and suffering. I didn't even need to take a hand in it…all I had to do was sit back and watch. Oh, it was absolutely delicious! You simply can't imagine…"

Bubbles started to grow angry and shouted, "Don't talk about it that way!"

Him stood back up, grinning widely, "Yes, that's it…more anger! I feel stronger already!" Bubbles shut herself up, but he continued, "I admit, I certainly didn't expect Mojo's device to actually be _used_…when it was successful, and all life was destroyed, the loss of the source of my power struck me, hard…" He paused and let his eyes drop to the ground, "I would have been destroyed utterly, if I weren't so strong from the events just before to it…"

Confused, Bubbles wondered, "How come you're even alive at _all?_"

"Silly girl…as long as I have power, I'm immortal," he claimed. "Not even something as powerful as Mojo's device can hope to harm _me_…"

"So then…what happened?" Bubbles asked.

"I had to sit and build my power before I could do _anything_," he said. "Drawing it in little by little…my, but it's been about twenty months now, hasn't it? A long time to wait…but now that my power is finally coming back to me…"

Flying up in front of his face, Bubbles said, "No, you're not doing anything. You'd better just behave yourself, or I'll think of something happy again." She smiled slightly.

Him just laughed said, "A nice threat, Bubbles, but I have something _much _better in mind…" He slid up next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder and pointing in front of her, "Watch…" She looked to where he was pointing, and a small, swirling vortex of energy appeared in the air…it slowly spread open until images became visible inside, almost like a TV.

"What are you doing?" Bubbles demanded.

"Just watch…" Him said. As she did, the images changed…suddenly, she was seeing a familiar scene; herself, so long ago, just after having woken back up, after the machine was used…she saw herself looking down at the professor's body on the ground, shaking it, but getting no response…

Bubbles felt tears starting to fill her eyes, and she whispered, "No, don't…"

Before she could move, though, Him's grip on her shoulder tightened, holding her in place. He cackled, "Yes, that's it…remember your sadness? Not a bad start, but I've only begun…let me show you something you _didn't _see…"

The image changed again, and Bubbles gasped. It was Buttercup, strapped down on a table and struggling. "What…Buttercup? But what…is it…"

"Buttercup's demise," he said. "You never knew how it happened, did you? What she went through…her pain…but you will now, just watch…"

"N-no…" Bubbles protested, trying to look away.

"_WATCH!_" Him growled darkly. He grasped the sides of her head firmly, making her watch it as it happened. The Duranium blade glistening even in the dim light, and Buttercup's pleads, which turned into shrieks of protest, then screams of pain. Bubbles felt her heart pound in her chest as she watched…it was too horrible…

"No, stop it! _Stop it!_" Bubbles yelled, struggling. She was strong enough to wrench away from him, but too paralyzed by her own sadness to flee. Him was enjoying every second of it, though. But Bubbles finally yelled, "It doesn't matter, that was in the past! It's over now! Just stop it!"

"Awww," Him said, giving a 'sad' look, "you don't want to see your sisters like that, do you? You don't want to see the suffering you put them through…do you?"

Bubbles fell silent for a second, then said, "Me? I didn't do that to them…what are you talking about?"

He savored the moment and started to laugh again, "You really don't know, do you? Well, allow me to show you…" He pointed towards the vortex, and the images changed again, this time showing Mojo Jojo writing up the plans for his Robo-Jojo. "Here we see Mojo," he commented, "hard at work on a plan to defeat you…"

"Yes, so? It's Mojo's fault, I know," Bubbles nodded.

The image zoomed in closer to the plans, and Him started pointing them out, "Look at his design…brilliant, isn't it? High-powered lasers, missiles, tremendous strength…why, this thing has the works, doesn't it?" Then he gasped in mock surprise, "What's this? Something's missing…why yes, no Durainum sawblades…what could have happened?"

Bubbles noticed this too, but didn't comment…she just stared silently as the image flashed ahead to show Mojo building the robot. _Well, maybe he added them on later,_ she thought_…a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing…_

"Oh well, even without such a powerful weapon, he went ahead with his design anyway," Him continued. "But then, something happened that surprised even _me_…" The side of Mojo's lair on the picture suddenly burst open, and Bubbles hovered there. She said a few things to Mojo, then started smashing up his robot.

Bubbles gasped, "But…how could you know…about that…? I wasn't…I mean, that didn't happen in our…it…"

On the image, Bubbles flew out, and Mojo dejectedly started gathering everything together. Him commented, "Oh look, he's starting to rebuild it! Looks like you _didn't_ manage to stop him after all…" Mojo suddenly looked inspired, and Him added, "…and not only that, your mindless little ramblings gave him an idea…" Mojo paused his reconstruction of the robot and headed over to another part of his lab…he melted and prepared the proper materials to create Duranium, and started crafting them…into familiar blades…

Horrified, Bubbles thought, _Oh…no…no, that didn't…I didn't…oh no…_

Seeing the expression on her face, Him said, "That's right…your little trip through time _did_ do something after all…"

As it all sank in, she shrieked, "_NOOOOO!!!_" Turning away from the images, she buried her face in her hands and started crying. _It can't be,_ she thought_…I'm…I'm the one who did it…it can't be…it can't be…_

Him started growing stronger by the second, and laughed, "That's right…for you see, you didn't know the flaw in the professor's precious Time Portal, did you? Anything changes you make with it were destined to happen anyway! You can't actually alter history, because your alterations _are_ history!"

Bubbles was crushed…everyone was dead because of her, because she had to go use the time portal and try to save everyone. This made her feel worse than ever before…it was hopeless, utterly hopeless. The professor, Blossom, Buttercup, everyone in Townsville, everyone across the entire world…dead…and it was all her fault…

_No no no, _Bubbles thought_…this isn't happening…ohh, if only the professor had made the Time Portal different…if only it didn't have that flaw…if only…if only I could really change things…_

As Him grew even more powerful, feeding from her anguish, an idea suddenly came to her. _Wait, if the portal is just flawed,_ she thought, _then that means…_ A smile broke out over her face. Him was puzzled by this, and he asked, "What? What are you grinning about? Your spirits should be crushed!"

She looked him dead in the eyes and set a happy, yet determined expression. "I just realized, if the professor's Time Portal is flawed, then maybe I can fix it. Maybe I can make it so that it _can_ change the past…"

"You? Ha!" Him laughed. "You haven't the brain power, little Bubbles…why, it would take you _forever_ to even figure out how it works, let alone how to fix it!"

Spreading her arms out, she said, "What else do I have to do? I've got time."

"You can't be serious…" Him exclaimed.

"I'm dead serious!" Bubbles nodded. "In fact…you've just given me something to aim for, and you've given me the hope that I can actually fix this whole mess!" She realized that this could actually work, and it filled her with joy and excitement. "Thank you!"

Him, who had previously been building in power, suddenly felt weakened by her sudden influx of joy. "Arrgh!" he said, clutching his chest and flickering slightly, "…no, don't…"

Magically, it was like the sorrow was all gone. She now had a clear, focused goal, and a way to set everything right once again. She said, "I'm going to go study right now! I've got a lot of work to do! Thanks again, Him…now I have something to look forward to! I'm happier than I've been in months!" She flew over and hugged him tightly and said, "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you…"

"_NOO!!_" Him bellowed, and his form started flickering worse…in the next instant, he completely faded from existence, a final, high-pitched "…nooo…" echoing in the air before likewise fading out, leaving Bubbles alone in the place where he was a moment ago.

This startled her a little, and for a moment, she felt sad, knowing that she no longer had anyone to talk to…then she brightened. She always had her flowers, and even better, she had hope for the future. Remembering why she came here in the first place, she started to fly off to find something for lunch, but then hesitate next to the stack of books in this part of the lab. She picked some of them up and took them with her. _I've got a lot of studying to do,_ she thought. _I might as well get started now!_

She left the lab with a firm resolve…the flowers were still this world's best hope of life continuing, so she would never forget about them. But in the meantime, she had nothing to lose with trying to save the past. The only loss would be if she _didn't_ try. She didn't care if it took her a hundred years…it would be worth it.

**__**

THE END


	4. Meltdown

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 4: "Meltdown"

In the next couple of months that passed, the seeds that Bubbles had planted began to grow, and eventually bloom. The inside of the greenhouse looked completely different than it had before, with a little over a hundred flowers spread out across the ground. Bubbles took some time every day to just stand back and look at it, marveling in its beauty. Every time she did, there was no doubt in her mind that life would return to the world, just as she always thought it would.

_They're so beautiful, _she thought, _and there are so many of them…why, in another year, there could be hundreds of flowers…maybe even a thousand! That'll fill the whole greenhouse up! I wonder if I should build a bigger one if that happens…things could get really crowded in here…_

Every last one of them had names. It was too many for her to remember, though, so she left it to the older flowers, knowing that _they_ wouldn't forget. Each one of them, too, reminded her of Bulba. _Oh, how proud Bulba would be,_ she thought, _to see how beautiful her children and grandchildren are!_

This afternoon, she was sitting and reading a thick book on mathematics. The advanced parts of it were difficult, but she was catching on little by little. She knew that once she completed this, she could start on the next steps of her learning process: physics, and eventually quantum physics. She had no idea how long it would take; the math part alone was being more difficult than she had expected, yet she stuck with it.

Feeling chilly, she pulled a blanket around her and looked up from her reading at the clouds in the sky. It was unusually cold for this time of the year. It certainly wasn't this cold in either of the two past years. _Hard to believe it's even _been_ two years, _she thought. _It seems like only yesterday._

Staring up at the sky, she realized what the trouble was. _It's so cloudy,_ she thought…_come to think of it, I haven't seen the sun in a couple of weeks. I'd better go see how long this cloud cover's going to last._ Setting down her book, she called out, "Be right back!" to the flowers and left the greenhouse, soaring up into the air towards the clouds above.

She aimed to fly above the clouds so that she could get a good view of the surrounding area, but when she plunged into the layer of clouds, she immediately started coughing, and had to fly back down for some air. It wasn't a normal cloud; it was dust and ash. Holding her breath, she flew up into the cloud and out the top. She gained some more altitude so that she could see exactly what was going on.

When she saw it, she gasped…the cloud cover stretched for as far as she could see. Flying up higher, almost out of the atmosphere, she still saw nothing but clouds. _What happened? _she wondered…_Where did all this come from? I've got a bad feeling about this…_

Plunging down back through the cloud cover, she headed straight back for the greenhouse and started gathering her supplies. She had to find out whatever was causing this, even if it meant leaving the flowers alone. "I have to go," she told them as she hastily prepared. "Yes yes, I'll be back soon! No, you'll be fine; this greenhouse will protect you from anything, and there's plenty of water."

She threw the backpack onto her back and stopped by one of the flowers on the way out, saying, "Sophie…you're in charge while I'm gone, okay?" Looking at one of the other flowers and hesitating, she added, "Fine, Lucy, you can be second-in-command if you want then. I have to go…I promise I'll be back as soon as possible!"

With that, she left the greenhouse and flew out from the city, amongst the clouds once again. She regarded the dust clouds grimly, thinking, _If I don't find out what's kicking up all this ash, it'll be hard for the flowers to get any sunlight…they'll die! I have to find out what's wrong!_

* * *

It didn't take her long, only a couple of hours, until she spotted something ahead that looked like it might be the source of the dust: a large pillar of smoke that rose up from the ground far off into the distance. As she flew closer to it, she noticed the devastation around her…she was still a long ways from the center, but everything was in total ruins, worse than other cities she had seen. It almost looked like a gigantic explosion, but as she neared the center, there wasn't even much debris left.

_What happened?_ she thought. _If only I knew what was here before…but whatever it is got blown up, so now what?_ She thought for a second, then remembered something and reached into her backpack, pulling out an atlas she had found. Going over it carefully, she tried to locate about where she was in the state, and looked for any other unusual things in the area.

She found the city she was undoubtedly in, and glanced around, looking for some kind of landmarks so she could pinpoint this spot. There wasn't much left, but she saw a small lake nearby, so she estimated it. Looking down at the map, she traced her hand across from the lake towards the opposite edge of the city, stopping when it passed over something of interest: the site of a nuclear power plant.

"It must have blown up," she said aloud, "like a nuclear bomb." It sort of made sense to her, in a way…with no one left to monitor these things, she guessed it was possible that it could eventually become unstable and reach critical mass. So this released a lot into the atmosphere, but why so much? There shouldn't have been _that_ much dust and ash…

As she mused over these thoughts, she saw a flash of light on the horizon, far off in the distance, maybe around a hundred miles away. Forgetting this site for the moment, she flew off towards it. As she rapidly closed the distance, a small mushroom cloud came into view eventually. _I'd bet anything that it's another power plant,_ Bubbles thought. She double-checked her maps to be sure, and indeed it was…she stayed safely away from it just in case it was still dangerous to approach.

_Is this happening all over?_ she wondered. _If enough of these things went off…yes, that must be what happened! The explosions must be kicking up all that debris. This is like…what did the professor call it? A 'nuclear winter'? Something about if too many atomic bombs are set off. But…if the sun is blocked off for too long…the flowers will all die! I've got to save them! But how do I stop it? And how do I get rid of all the dust that's already in the air?_

Without hesitation, she turned and headed back for home as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the clouds were getting thicker, and the air darker. She had no idea how long the flowers could live without sunlight, so every second counted…

* * *

It was almost as dark as a moonlight night, now, as Bubbles sat next to her flowers inside the greenhouse, thinking furiously. "Let's see," she said aloud, "I have to clear away the cloud cover, but I have to stop the power plants from exploding, or else it'll just come right back again. But how am I gonna do that? I don't know how to stop those things, and there are so many of them! There's just gotta be a way…"

As she thought about it, something suddenly occurred to her. There was one of those power plants right in Townsville itself. In fact, it was the same one with the generators that Mojo's device had been hooked to. She thought all power had ceased from it, but she hadn't considered that its nuclear core might still be active in there somewhere.

Bubbles quickly got up and flew out of the greenhouse, heading for the power plant. It wasn't difficult to get inside, seeing as there was still a huge hole blasted in the roof. Inside, she saw the generators, and Mojo's device, still attached to it. Flying over to a bank of computers, she hit the buttons a few times to see if there was any power being fed to it, and amazingly, the screen lit up dimly.

Her eyes widened as she saw what was displayed, various readings that she didn't recognize. But most importantly, it was flashing in red, 'DANGER MELTDOWN EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY 00:00:59'. Suddenly afraid, she started looking around, trying to figure out how to stop it. _It's going to blow up!_ she thought. _What do I do? What do I do?!_

She quickly weighed her options. One was to obviously find a way to reverse everything before the meltdown occurred, but she had absolutely no idea how to do this. She could try flying away to a safe distance, but then…the flowers would all be destroyed, and she couldn't let that happen. She could try lifting the entire greenhouse, flowers and all, and fly to a safe distance with them, but she wouldn't have time.

The clock on the display had dropped to '00:00:47' by this point. She was running out of time. Only one thing to do, she decided, and she hoped it would work. Flying out from the power plant, she fired her eyebeams, cutting into the ground around it, slicing a big circle surrounding the entire building. Then, flying into one of the gaps she made, she lifted the entire facility out, straining every muscle despite her super strength. It slowly worked its way out from the ground, and she lifted up over her head.

Realizing that there were only seconds left, Bubbles put all her strength into it, and with a shout, hurled the facility high into the air. It disappeared through the cloud cover, on its way to orbit. She wiped off her forehead and sank weakly to the ground, resting…far above her, she heard a massive explosion as the power plant blew up safely away from the Earth.

_That was too close,_ she thought, a bit shaken as she laid on her back. _It's a good thing I found out about this…what would have happened if I hadn't? I would never have seen it coming…and it could have gone off at any time! Of everything I've been through so far, this is probably the closest call of all…_

The use of all her strength took its toll on her, and she passed out from sheer exhaustion. She knew she had more business to take care of, but she just couldn't do it right now…in the back of her mind, she silently hoped that getting rid of the power plant would be enough for the moment…

* * *

When Bubbles came to, the air was pitch black. The sun must have set, and no stars or moon were visible. There was nothing but an inky blackness surrounding her. For a moment, she was afraid…she had never quite fully gotten over her fear of the dark, and this was probably the _darkest_ darkness she'd ever been in. Then she started feeling around, trying to find a piece of wood or _something_.

Eventually she came up against a tree. She broke off one of the branches and used her eyebeams to light it on fire. This finally gave her a source of light, and she started looking around to get her bearings, and to find her way back to the greenhouse, since she still had a working flashlight over there.

As she flew back, she was filled with despair…this was only one power plant, while there were countless more out there. _First thing's first_, she decided. _I have to see if I can at least remove some of those clouds. If I can't, then there's no point in trying to stop all the power plants from exploding, because I've failed either way._ _But if I can find a way to get rid of the clouds, then at the very least, I can just remove them again if more show up._

Bubbles made it back to the greenhouse. The flowers seemed all right…she quickly said, "Everything will be okay…don't worry, I can find a way to bring back the sun." As she went through her gear, locating her flashlight, she nodded in response to the flowers, "I know, but don't be scared…I'm here, and I won't give up. I'm going out there right now to try something, okay?…Yes, thanks, all of you. I'll need all the luck I can get…"

She turned on the flashlight and headed back out into the darkness, flying up towards the clouds. Tucking the flashlight into her belt as she approached, she had an idea that she wanted to try, something she had seen Buttercup do a long time ago. Maybe it could do the trick in this situation too, if she can duplicate it. _I hope this works,_ she told herself.

Holding her hands together, Bubbles started to spin around, slowly at first, but then picking up speed, until she had whirled into a small tornado. The clouds nearest to her were drawn into the whirlwind, and once she had enough of them, she flew higher, above the cloud cover, almost into space. She continued the spin, and the clouds streamed out, leaving Earth's atmosphere and dissipating into space.

It was a little more dizzying than Bubbles had expected…she wondered how Buttercup had done it so easily. Nevertheless, it was only a little bit of the cloud that she had managed to pull up, so she flew down and repeated the process again, releasing more of it into space. Then again, and again. After around ten more attempts, she had to stop and steady herself, taking a break to keep her vertigo from causing her to throw up. She took this time to look down at the cloud cover again and see how much progress she had made.

Not very much, unfortunately…it was only dented; she'd have to repeat the process many more times before she could make a hole big enough for the sun to poke through once it rose again. And then, it would probably just fill back in from the adjacent clouds before long. She realized this, and just stared in disbelief.

_No,_ she thought, _I can't have come this far, just to let a bunch of dust and ash keep life from surviving…I…I have to keep trying…I can't give up!_ Taking a deep breath, she ended her break and dove into the clouds to resume her tornado spins…

* * *

It was almost two weeks later before the clouds finally started thinning. Bubbles spent nearly eight hours a day purging clouds from the atmosphere…each day, she grew more fearful for the flowers, how they could survive without the sun, since barely any sunlight was coming through even during the day. Yet she continued, with the dim hope that when the clouds finally _did_ clear, they might still be alive.

During this two-week period, she noticed something odd: the flowers hadn't wilted even the slightest. She wasn't sure how this was possible, but she readily accepted the fact, especially after she had been so convinced that she was going to fail. Maybe her little pep talk she gave them every night was doing some good, or maybe this type of flower just didn't need as much sunlight.

She attributed it to the flowers' resiliency, though. This was a flower that had survived a world-wide apocalypse, after all. Perhaps it could go for _months_ without sunlight, who knows? They might even last a while without _water_. She had never tried _not_ watering them, because she didn't want to take that chance. It would also explain how come the flowers remained in bloom all year round. Whatever the reason, they were definitely strong, and most definitely flowers unlike anything she had ever seen before.

_That's good,_ she thought. _They're so strong…they'll pull through and bring life back to the whole planet one day. I know they will._

* * *

Another week had passed, and the cloud cover was almost completely gone over Townsville. The sun shone brightly across the landscape once again, and Bubbles was confident that she could keep it that way. A trip to another nearby power plant gave her some more useful information: they weren't all in danger of meltdown, as many of them had likely fallen dormant like this one. That meant that even if it happened a few more times, it wasn't likely to create a cloud cover as heavy as before.

She was able to turn her attention back to the flowers now. She was even more curious than ever as to how they were able to endure so much, and wanted to try a few things. Sophie, always the brave one, volunteered to go without water for a while. Even after that whole week, she still seemed perfectly fine, although on the last day, a few slight telltale signs of droopiness began to show. _So they're not immortal,_ Bubbles thought, _but they're pretty tough otherwise._

She sat with the flowers that Saturday, to have their usual group discussion. Bubbles smiled at Sophie and said, "As you know, due to Sophie's help, we now know that it's not just sunlight, but water also that you can go without for at least a little while." She looked in the back and after a brief hesitation said, "No, don't worry, that won't ever happen. There's still plenty of sunlight and water for you all!"

She took a few deep breaths and said, "Now, let's think about this. This means that you can probably grow in areas with very little water. Soon, but not for a while, I'd like some volunteers for anyone that wants to try growing out in the dry fields near Townsville. So think about it for a little while…" She took another deep breath, "…and if you're sure, I'll move you over there…"

Lying back for a second, she held her hand over her chest and took a few more deep breaths. After a moment, she waved her hand and said, "No, Jade, it's all right…I'm just tired…I'll be fine after…some rest…" She smiled and laid down to take a little nap, thinking, _It's been a long few weeks…I've been pushing myself too hard, maybe I should take it easy for a little bit…besides, the flowers are much stronger than I ever imagined, and they can handle themselves. I need a vacation…but where can I go? There really isn't anyplace…oh well, I'll think about it later…right now, I need some well-deserved rest…_

**__**

THE END


	5. Sickness

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 5: "Sickness"

Bubbles plugged the last power cell into the back of the Time Portal, snapping the protective panel back in place over it. Since the machine was out of power, she hoped that these cells she found would supply enough to re-energize it. She hadn't yet made any modifications to the portal, but she decided that before she started, she needed to be sure that the portal could be easily powered up again in the first place.

Moving back around to the front of it, she set some coordinates and switched it on. The opening to the portal was filled with static, and Bubbles smiled triumphantly. It worked! This was a good sign…it meant that if she ever managed to fix the portal, she'd at least be able to _use_ it.

An instant later, though, she glanced down at a little meter that showed how much power remained, and noticed that it was showing extremely low. In fact, its power was draining rapidly, and would be depleted in a few seconds. Instinctively, she scribbled a quick note on paper as fast as she could, only having time to write out, "duranium sawblades stay away"…she thrust it through the portal just as it closed.

Sighing to herself, she shook her head. _I dunno why I even did that, _she thought. _I know I can't change the past with the way the portal is right now. I'm also gonna have to find a bigger source of power…_

* * *

Blossom picked herself up from the ground, shaking off the effects of the impact. She glanced up just in time to see Buttercup swatting a missile away that was launched at her. She grinned slightly… _That's Buttercup,_ she thought, _always showing off her strength…_

From within the Robo-Jojo, Mojo gritted his teeth at the missile's failure and said, "Very impressive…but let's see if you can knock _this_ away!" A hatch opened up on the body, and a spinning sawblade shot out, towards Buttercup. She raised her arm, ready to punch it the same way she had punched the missile.

The instant Blossom saw the blade, it sparked a memory. _Wait a second,_ she thought…_That piece of paper I found on the ground this morning…it mentioned something about Duranium sawblades. Could this be one? But…if that's made of Duranium, then…_ She gasped to herself, realizing what the blade would do to Buttercup if she tried to knock it away, and shouted, "No, Buttercup! Don't touch it!"

"Huh?" Buttercup said. She leaned to the side at the last second, but the blade clipped her arm cutting a huge gash along it. She yelped, and clutched it tightly…blood was seeping out from around her hand.

Blossom was shocked…it _was _Duranium! She heard Mojo's rants a few seconds later that confirmed this. She was relieved, though…thanks to her warning, Buttercup's life was possibly saved. _I don't know where that message on the piece of paper came from, _she thought, _but I'm glad I got it!_ Noticing Mojo launching more of the blades, she thought, _All right, now that I know what we're up against, I'd better disable that sawblade shooter, on the double…_

* * *

Bubbles watched the time portal close. _I wish I knew what kind of effect it had,_ she thought. _Especially now that I know it was supposed to happen anyway. _She began to wonder what would happen if she had tried other things. If everything she tries to change was _supposed_ to happen, what if she went and changed something that she knew wasn't right? Like, something she saw with her own eyes? This was the biggest problem for her to get over once she gets around to fixing the Time Portal. She needed to find a way to change the past and allow repercussions to the future, or else it would be impossible to change.

"Well, step one is done," she said aloud, turning to the flowers nearby. "Step two is to keep going with my reading unti--…"

She cut herself off as she took a deep breath, holding her chest. Two days since doing all that work to clear the skies, and she _still _felt fatigued. _All right, that's it, _she thought. _Enough working on the Time Portal for today. I'd better just relax for a little bit. I'll feel better after some rest._

Sitting down on the ground, Bubbles took a few more deep breaths. She glanced over at the flowers and said, "No, I'm…okay, just…a little short…on breath…I'll be fine…" She continued breathing heavily, and clutched her chest tighter. _What's wrong?_ she thought. _I've never been this tired…_

A moment later, a wave of nausea hit her…she clasped her hands over her mouth, and without hesitation, she quickly flew out from the greenhouse. Once safely over to a pile of junk outside, she doubled over and started to throw up. After a minute, she was done, and reeled dizzily, lying down and resting her head on the ground.

She thought, _What's wrong with me? Am I sick? What's going on? _She clutched her arms around herself and shivered…it was warm out, but she still felt so cold…

* * *

Inside the greenhouse, Bubbles lay out on some blankets, a heavy one wrapped tightly around her, yet she still shivered violently. Her skin was covered with red blotches now, and her chest felt tight…every breath was coming in short gasps. She listened to the flowers nearby, but wasn't able to talk back to them at the moment.

_This is wrong, this is all wrong,_ she thought. _I can't be sick…there aren't any viruses or anything out there…how can this happen? It's not possible…_ It was difficult to focus, but she still managed to think logically about it. _If it's not a disease, then it has to be something else, maybe something I did to myself. But I haven't done anything wrong…I've haven't eaten anything different, and I haven't done anything strange. I've been doing everything the same. So what's wrong? I haven't come in contact with anything unusual…_

That's when it suddenly made sense. The troubles started right after she had finished clearing out the dust and debris from the skies, the ones that had been kicked up from all those nuclear explosions. She _had _come in contact with something unusual: those clouds. And if they were created from a nuclear explosion…

_Radiation,_ she thought. _I thought I was resistant to it, though…I've lived through some high-energy blasts from Mojo's weapons; surely _some_ of them were radioactive. Or perhaps…maybe I _am_ resistant to it, but…I was in contact with it for such a long time…almost three weeks. It must have built up…to a point where it affected me finally…_

Bubbles looked down at the red splotches on her arms, almost difficult to see due to how much they were shaking. _How do I stop it? This'll…this'll kill me if I let it continue…but what can I do? I have to find a solution…_

She felt nauseous again, but forced it down to dry heaves as she weakly got up off of the ground and headed for her books. She kept her blanket wound around herself as she started going through them, looking for something on radiation. She paused for a moment to give the flowers a brief glance. _They're so concerned about me,_ she thought. _Hold on, little ones…I'll make it through this, I promise…_

* * *

Time passed as Bubbles went over the info in the books. At least she wasn't getting much worse…she still felt awful, but from what she read about the dosage of radiation she received, she should have been dead by now. Chemical X was an amazing thing, that it was able to protect her from heavy radiation like this. Still, she was sick, and she wasn't going to get better anytime soon without proper attention.

But as to what 'proper attention' would be, she had no idea. In the books she had, they didn't mention anything about treating radiation. She was beginning to get worried…what if there wasn't a way to cure herself? How long, then, before the radiation finally did her in?

She only looked through a small number of the books anyway. After a while, her hands were shaking almost too much to read, and then she was finding it difficult to focus anyway. Eventually, she just set the books aside and lay down. Her breathing was actually getting slightly easier, but everything else seemed to be getting worse.

Trembling, Bubbles turned her head from where she was laying to look at the flowers. They all seemed so afraid for her. She couldn't blame them…she was afraid for herself, too. She softly managed to speak to them, "I…I don't know…what to do…" Listening, she added, "Th-thank you…that means…a lot to me…I'll try to…hang on, just…just for you…"

She closed her eyes, trying to gather her strength. Her mind continue to try to work on the problem…_Was this radiation everywhere? It must have blown across the whole world. Maybe not very strong, but it probably blanketed everything…_ A sudden thought chilled her even more than the coldness she was feeling. _Oh no! What if it got on the flowers too?!_

Straining her muscles, she pulled herself back to her feet and managed to get airborne. "I'll be…back…" she said to the flowers, "…I just have…to get something…from the lab…" She flew slowly out from the greenhouse and headed for home.

It took almost every ounce of Bubbles' strength just to get there. When she finally made it, she leaned up against the wall to catch her breath. Her muscles were throbbing in protest, but she clenched her teeth and went on anyway. Going into the lab, she found what she was looking for without much difficulty: a Geiger counter. To test if it worked, she pointed it at herself to get a reading.

The counter clicked wildly, picking up the radiation coming from her. It was actually less than she had expected, but still enough to be deadly. The true weight of the situation dawned on her…with this much radiation, she wouldn't survive, not for long. It spelled the end of her. She could feel it in every ounce of her being, too, that there wasn't anything she could do about it.

As this fear built up inside her, it was accompanied by grief…even if it was one of the last things she did, she had to know if the flowers were also radioactive now. If they were, then she failed…and even if they weren't, she still might have failed, unless they can somehow carry on without her. Tears rolled out from her eyes at she thought this…she was only one girl, but they were life's last hope. They were more important than her anyway.

She managed to get airborne again and started heading back, trailing tears behind her as she went…she cried, "I'm…I'm sorry…I did…everything I could…forgive me…"

* * *

Getting back to the greenhouse, Bubbles took a reading on the flowers. Incredibly, the meter showed nothing. Nothing at all, not even background radiation. Experimentally, she pointed it outside, and it picked up a little, well within the safe limits. She pointed it at the flowers again. Still nothing.

_What on Earth…?_ she thought. She reached down and brushed one of the flowers softly with her hand. They still felt strong, too. No wilting, nothing broken…they were still perfect. Lifting her hand back up, though, she saw something amazing: the red welts on it had got noticeably smaller.

She quickly picked the Geiger counter back up and pointed it at the flower. Still no reading from it…she pointed it at her own hand, and got a heavy reading, although it was _very _slightly less than before. _This…_ Bubbles tried to think_…this is almost…almost like it was absorbing some of it…can these flowers absorb radiation safely?_

Smiling at the idea, she brushed her arm gently through the flowers again for a moment, the lifted it up to take a look. The welts were actually receding visibly. _Wow, it works fast, too!_ she thought. _But, it's not very much…and it's only on my skin. This radiation is all through my body. How am I gonna get rid of it all?_

Listening to the flowers, Bubbles managed to say, "Yes, I…I saw it too…but it's not…enough…" She tried to think…even if she rolled around in the flowers for a while, it still wouldn't be enough to do anything but get rid of a little surface radiation. The only way to nullify it throughout her entire body would be to…

_No, I can't do that, _she thought. _I can't do that to them. Any of them. _She must have looked troubled, because she gazed up at the flowers and said, "Nothing…I was just thinking…if I…if I ate…one of you…but I can't do that…I'd never do that…" She paused and added, "Yes, it _will_ work…but I still…I still won't do it…not to you…"

She gripped her chest again, gasping…it was starting to become difficult to breathe again. She tried to stand up straighter, but then slipped and collapsed forwards, falling on her knees. Panting, she knew it wouldn't be too long before she would be incapacitated, then probably die slowly in front of the flowers. But she still didn't want to do anything that would hurt them. She had vowed to protect them, not this.

She looked up in surprise at them and wheezed, "…what…Sophie, you…you mean it…? But I…I can't let…you do it…I can't…" She paused to catch her breath and listen, then said, "You…volunteer? But…are you…sure that you…" Another pause, then tears started to stream down her face as she said, "You're…such a good…friend…I'll never…forget you…"

With that, she carefully reached down and dug the flower out from the soil. Sophie looked so perfect in her hands, reminding her of Bulba once again. She was still shaking, and her vision was growing blurry, so she closed her teary eyes. Very slowly, she lifted the flower to her mouth with her trembling hands and took a bite…then another, and another…until eventually, she had consumed it entirely.

She half-expected disgust or shock from the other flowers, but not a single one of them showed it. She smiled as she laid down, _already _starting to feel a little better. "Thank you…" she said. "I feel bad…about Sophie though…" She paused and said, "You're right…I've done so much…for all of you…I guess she just…really wanted to do something…for me instead…"

After another pause, she chuckled a little, "Brigit, that's awful! Kinda morbid…but true in a way…I guess she _will_ always…be part of me…"

* * *

Bubbles was almost completely better by that evening. The welts had disappeared from her skin, and her strength was returning. Her breathing was still slightly short, although the coldness was gone. Even the Geiger counter had stopped picking anything major up from her. It worked. After a good night's rest, even her shortness of breath had gone.

She talked to the flowers again that day. "Sophie was going to be one of the first volunteers to try to be transplanted somewhere else, so that a new patch of flowers can be started. But now, I'm going to need new volunteers…" She smiled as she looked across the flowers and said, "Wow…I don't need _that_ many, but I'm glad to see you're so enthusiastic about it!"

She carefully selected three of the flowers and said, "You three get ready…it'll be a while before you'll go, 'cause I need to find a place to put you first." She nodded, "Yes, that's where I'm going right now. I'll be back in a few hours, okay?" Gathering her things, she left the greenhouse.

As she did, she really began to understand the relationship between her and the flowers. _I've given them everything,_ she thought, _and they've saved my life as well. This is no longer just me trying to make sure they survive…it's both of us supporting each other. They aren't life's last hope…we both are. And it's together that we'll be successful…_

Bubbles continued to think about this as she passed high over the landscape, looking across for a good area to plant the flowers. There was a field, still covered in dead grass, that looked like it might be a good place…but it wasn't anywhere near a good source of water. Another place was a little less desirable, but was near a pond, which could sustain them.

She passed over a section of rocky soil and considered this location also. It had probably the best exposure to sunlight of all the areas, and it wasn't far from the coast, so there had to be water underground there as well, but she didn't like the look of the soil…could anything even grow there? After all, there wasn't a single dead plant in the area…that was a sure sign that nothing would grow there.

She was about to turn around, when she caught a glimpse of color amongst the rocks in one part of this area. Curiously, she circled around for a moment from high above to get a better look…and what she saw, she couldn't believe. Something she never would have expected to find, not in a million years…

**__**

THE END


	6. Spirit

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 6: "Spirit"

_Oh my gosh,_ Bubbles thought…_It can't be…_

It was so tiny down below her, amongst the rocky soil. She almost missed it, and she was still high enough that she didn't fully trust her senses…after all, she knew it was impossible. Very slowly, she descended from the sky, until she was close enough to see that she _wasn't_ mistaken. With greater speed, she covered the rest of the distance to the ground and landed.

She strode over to it, trembling a little in disbelief. Every leaf, every petal…she knew the shape by heart. Even though every one of her flowers were similar, they all carried subtle differences…and because of this, there was no mistaking this one, all alone out here in the field. She didn't know how, but it was really here.

Collapsing on the ground next to it, she hugged her arms tightly around the earth in which it was rooted, her tears falling and wetting the soil. "_BULBA!!_" she cried out in disbelief, "You're _alive!!_"

The small, white flower swayed gently in the breeze, almost in response. Its missing petals had grown back since the day it disappeared in the hurricane, well over a year ago. In fact, it was thriving out here in the rocky soil…it looked healthy as the day she had found it.

Bubbles started babbling excitedly, tears still filling her eyes, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe it…I thought when you…and when you were blown away…I thought…oh my gosh, it's so good to see you again!" After only a moment's hesitation, she hugged the soil again and said, "Ohh, I missed you too, Bulba!"

She glanced back towards the ruins of Townsville, far off in the distance, and said, "You've got to meet the others!…Yes that's right, remember those seeds you gave me?…Yes! All of them! And they all gave seeds too! Can I dig you up? I promise I'll have you back in the ground again when we get there!…okay, hang on!"

Digging her hands into the ground, she carefully extracted Bulba from the soil. As she did, she was giddy with excitement. _I can't believe it I can't believe it I can't believe it,_ she thought. _We're together again! After all this time, we're together again!_ Cradling the flower carefully, she started flying back for the greenhouse, happier than she had been for a long time…

* * *

Bubbles dug a hole quickly in the soil as soon as she entered the greenhouse and planted Bulba near the others. Getting back up from the ground, she turned to look at the flowers and said, "Everyone, look who I found! It's your mommy—and grandmommy, for a lot of you—Bulba!" She giggled, "That's right! The one I've told you all about many times!"

She sat back and listened to them get acquainted, still in high spirits. _This calls for a celebration,_ she thought, and quickly dug out a box from the stack of supplies nearby. Opening it, she pulled a handful of candy out and popped them one by one into her mouth. Closing the box, she laid down on her belly with her head propped on her arms, kicking her legs idly behind her as she enjoyed the taste of the candy and continued to listen to the discussion.

"No way!" Bubbles exclaimed. "When the wind died down, you landed there? How did you survive?" She grinned, "Even in that rocky soil, you took root…I've always known you were strong, Bulba. I knew you had grown up big and strong, and could handle anything." After a pause, she giggled again and said, "You think so? I guess I've grown a little. It's been two years since we first met…"

Swallowing the candy, she sighed happily and started to slide the box back into the stack of supplies. As she did, she took another small box out for a moment and looked at it…a wooden box, painted pink with a red heart set in the top, and a small combination lock on it.

"Hmm?" Bubbles said, looking back over at Bulba, then she explained, "Oh…this was something I found back at home. It belonged to Blossom. I never opened it, 'cause I don't know the combination…I still don't know what's inside it. Yes, I know, I could've just ripped it open, or used my x-ray vision, but…I dunno, it just seems more like it's still a part of Blossom this way, if I leave it undisturbed."

She set the box aside and laid down again, staring at it. "No, I really don't want to know, Bulba. I think if I ever found the combination or something, then I'd be meant to know. For now, it's just something to remember her by."

She looked back to Bulba again and said, "But c'mon, tell us! What have you been doing the past year? Weren't you lonely out there?" She and the other flowers listened intently to Bulba as the time passed, growing later into the day…

* * *

The following day, Bubbles was pouring over her books again. She should have been studying on her physics, but instead, she was going over a stack of other books, as she tried to solve another problem.

"All right," she said aloud to the flowers. "Bulba, you're not like any flower in the world. I already knew that, but it's even more so. You and your children are so _tough_. Between all of you, you've survived a machine that destroys all life, you've survived being ripped up from the ground by a hurricane, and you've survived both lack of sunlight _and_ exposure to radiation. The question is, how in the world did you _get_ like this?"

She closed the book she was reading and knelt down next to Bulba, asking, "Bulba…what's the earliest thing you can remember? Think as far back as you can…" She listened and nodded. "Okay, I remember finding you in that flowerbed, but can you remember anything else?" Another pause. "That's as far back as you can remember? That makes sense. So, what about your family there?"

Scratching her head curiously, Bubbles remarked, "So they weren't _really _your family, they just adopted you? You weren't like them at all, then…" _No wonder they didn't survive also,_ she thought. _Poor flowers. Well, Bulba certainly is one-of-a-kind, then. Hmm…this was in the park, maybe Mojo had something to do with it._

She glanced out of the greenhouse, towards the volcano mountain on the other side of the park. The observatory had already been in poor condition prior to the incident two years ago, but now it was almost totally demolished. Much of it had even fallen into the volcano itself, probably taking whatever secrets Mojo was hiding with it. Still, there might be something left, so she decided to take a look.

"Be right back," she said, leaving the greenhouse and heading for the remains of Mojo's hideout. It was precariously perched on the edge of the volcano, but was still pretty stable, not having moved much over the years. She decided to be careful and not actually land on it anyplace, in case her extra weight would cause it to topple over.

Carefully, she went through a collection of papers and equipment that were still intact. They were mostly weapon and robot designs, hardly anything of actual use to her. Plus, she didn't see hardly anything on biological research. Mojo was definitely more towards the engineering end of science. There was a little here and there, mostly failed research attempts to figure out ways to take her and her sisters' powers away.

A box full of videotapes intrigued her…they were each labeled and dated. There was also a small video camera in the box, modified so that it could hover instead of needing a tripod. She tested the power, and it still worked, although just barely…it would let her view the tapes back, so she popped one of the tapes in to check it out.

On the tape was a recording of Mojo standing there, doing a test of some laser rifle he designed. As he explained its operation to the camera, he turned and disintegrated a tree with it…then the weapon started to overheat, and he tossed it away before it exploded. Grumbling, Mojo returned to the camera, and the picture shut off.

Bubbles took the tape back out and checked it…besides the date, a big red 'Failure' had been stamped across this one. She grinned slightly and started looking through some of the other tapes and their labels, to see if there was anything of relevance. One particular tape caught her eye: it was dated barely a couple of days prior to Mojo's attack with the Robo-Jojo, the one that started the whole mess. It was also the latest tape in the collection.

She inserted the tape and watched. Mojo was outside in the park again, this time demonstrating a group of small hovering bombs. He activated one, then started flying it around with a remote control, and the camera followed it as it zipped from place to place across the park. As it did a final loop in the air, Mojo punched a button on the remote, and it detonated, almost like a firework…

_Wait a second,_ Bubbles thought, backing the tape up. The explosion reversed itself, and the bomb started weaving through the park again…finally, she spotted something and paused the tape. It had passed close to a flowerbed, the very one where she had found Bulba. She slowly advanced the tape, a frame at a time, until she found one that gave her a clear view of it.

Something was missing, though…Bulba wasn't there. Other flowers were present, but there was no sign of the brilliant white flower she had come to know so well. _Okay, this means that she was planted _very _recently…sometime from this point to the day that Mojo's device was used. That's a span of about…let's see…ten days._

She tried to think what had happened during those ten days. During the struggle in the park that one night, most of the park was burnt down, but it was slowly replanted and repaired over the week after it, leading up to the final disaster. Perhaps someone had planted it during that time? That was the only explanation she could think of.

Packing the things back into the box where she found them, she left the observatory, still confused. She figured that maybe Bulba still knew something, though. She could try to help the flower remember…unfortunately, that was her only lead. All other evidence had been washed away, along with the rest of life.

* * *

Bulba still couldn't remember a thing…Bubbles tried repeatedly to jog its memory, but nothing came. She eventually gave up and lay back, staring up at the darkening sky through the roof of the greenhouse. "Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter how come you're such a good survivor. But I really wish I knew…"

Going through the stack of supplies, she paused at the box belonging to Blossom once again. She brushed her hand across it gently, wiping off some dust that had built up on it, and smiled. Setting the box down between her and Bulba, she said, "Here's something that me and the other flowers liked to play once and a while…what do you think she kept in this box? I like to think she has a diary in there…"

She listened, then giggled, "Yeah! She'd probably be smart enough to hide candy in there, you're right! That's a good one!" She laid down and looked closely at the combination lock again and said, "Why else would she make sure the professor wouldn't find out about it? Or any of us?"

She sighed happily to herself. _I really should just break it open one of these days, _she thought._ But that would ruin this memory of her…I think I'd rather just keep it like this. But I'm going to go through that house again one of these days and see if I can find the combination to this thing…_

Looking up in surprise at Bulba, she said, "What? Well, umm…I guess I could try…it just sounds totally random, though…but what the heck!" She carefully twisted the lock dial around, stopping on different sets of numbers. When she put the third number in, she gasped as she heard a small click.

"Wha…Bulba!" she exclaimed. "You're right! How did you know?!" After a moment, she said, "Just a feeling? Wow…maybe you're psychic or something. You can't explain it either, huh?" She grinned and said, "Should I open it?" She paused, then nodded and took a deep breath, "Here goes…"

She lifted the lid slowly…inside, was an envelope, unsealed, but stuffed full of something. Written on it, in Blossom's handwriting, was "Our 'Baby' Pictures." Full of curiosity, Bubbles slid the envelope open and removed the contents: a stack of small photographs.

It looked like Blossom had gone through them once before, because they looked to be in reverse order. She saw several photos of her and her sisters not long after their creation, and one of them was _right_ after it…they were still hovering above the bowl. The sight of this brought a tear to her eye, seeing a picture of them being brought into the world for the first time. _The professor must have given these to Blossom for safekeeping,_ she thought. _How beautiful…_

The pictures didn't stop there…another photo showed the mixture, before the Chemical X had been added, before they had even been stirred even. With growing interest, she thumbed through the rest of them, and saw individual pictures of their ingredients: a photo of a bag of sugar…a photo of several jars of various spices…and a photo of a bucket, filled with what they knew as 'Everything Nice.' She had never before seen this before, in their purest form like this, before they were mixed together and split up amongst the three of them. It was incredible to see…

_Wait a second,_ she thought, peering closely at the 'Everything Nice' picture. She squinted, trying to make out something on it. Looking back at her pile of supplies, she fished out a small magnifying glass and held it up to the picture for a better look. What she saw made her gasp, and she almost dropped the magnifying glass in shock.

Amongst the Everything Nice that was in the bucket, she spotted a small white flower…but not just any flower. Just as easily as she had recognized the shape of it before, she knew this one instantly. "Bulba?" she whispered. "But…but that means…that means…"

With a slow, unbelieving stare, she turned to look back at Bulba as it finally dawned on her. The flower was part of their Everything Nice…it couldn't have been from Bubbles, though, since she was still alive. And Buttercup's components, she knew, had been scattered throughout the professor's lab. But Blossom, whose components had been scattered to the winds…

"B-Blossom?" she managed to say, the photo and magnifying glass falling from her hands. It was there in front of her…even if it was only a small part of her, it was still Blossom. Somehow, the flower must have initially fallen from the air and taken root here in the park, just like it had from the hurricane…

Not wanting to crush the flower, Bubbles hugged the soil around its base tightly again. For a moment, she imagined that Blossom was there, at least in spirit, hugging her back, and tears streamed down her face as she cried happily. She was too overcome with emotion to speak, but even if she could, she wouldn't know what to say…

* * *

Chemical X was the key. Bulba—and likewise, the other flowers—carried a residual energy trace from the reaction which broke Blossom back down into her base components. It wasn't _exactly _like Chemical X, but it had its own properties. It certainly explained the near-immortal qualities that the flowers exhibited.

Bubbles was more concerned with its source, though. In the past few years, she longed to be with her sisters again, more than anything. How ironic, she thought, that it would turn out that Blossom had been by her side almost the entire time. Every laugh, every tear, through all her accomplishments and hardships, Blossom had always been near to her. It made her feel better, knowing that in a way, she had never left.

She thought about renaming Bulba to 'Blossom', since that's who it was, but she had gotten used to calling the flower Bulba, so she decided to stick with the name. It was funny to think that way back a long time ago, she had almost named the flower 'Blossom' in the first place.

With renewed energy, Bubbles had now found the confidence she was looking for and proceeded full-steam with her studies. She still had to make sure the flowers were secure here, but with Blossom's spirit watching over them, she knew they would be fine. Now, all that remained was to learn how to make those modifications to the Time Portal that would allow her to alter the past.

She wasn't exactly sure what the future would bring, but with Bulba returned to her again, and with the knowledge that Blossom had never left her, she knew she could handle it, no matter what it was.

**__**

THE END


	7. Invasion

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 7: "Invasion"

Bubbles took a sip of the cool water from her thermos as she flew and wiped her mouth. Far below her, she passed over each of the patches of flowers she had placed so long ago, around the outskirts of the city. They were all doing so well, each of them consisting of thousands of flowers already. The sight of them flourishing always brought a smile to her face, and she couldn't help but think how beautiful of a presence Bulba's (and Blossom's) descendants were having on the land.

Around five years had passed since she had learned of Bulba's origin. Not a single day of it had gone by without Bubbles feeling close to her sister, as her legacy grew across the otherwise dead land. She only wished that Buttercup would have had a flower survive from her components, but a quick search of the old lab, where she had finally perished, turned up nothing of the sort. She was sad about that, but took comfort in the fact that at least Blossom was still with her.

Nothing incredibly noteworthy happened during the past five years. Bubbles grew out of her clothing, but was able to find plenty of replacements. At the moment, she wore a simple white T-shirt and denim shorts. Besides that, her thermos was all that she carried with her. It was getting pretty beat-up, and she could have easily found a replacement, but it had some sentimental value, since it was one of the first useful things she had found way back when this all began, seven years ago.

"Seven years," she whispered to herself. It was almost unthinkable…she had lived her old life for only about a year and a half, while she had spent almost _five times_ that on this nearly lifeless world. If it weren't for the constant reminders she gave herself daily, she would almost have forgotten the old world. She had plenty to do during the past several years, though. Besides making sure the flowers were all okay (a much bigger job with how many there were), she also had continued her studies. Learning at a quick rate, she was becoming quite good with physics and some mechanics as well. She only recently started to delve into electronics, but she was making tremendous progress nonetheless.

Having finished her little checkup on the flowers, she descended towards the greenhouse in the city below. It was only the home of a few now…only about a hundred flowers, and Bulba. Night had already fallen, so she went inside, ready to relax and get some sleep for the evening.

As she lay on her back, looking up at the stars through the roof of the greenhouse, she said, "Look at the stars out there, Bulba…they're incredible tonight, aren't they?" Pausing, she sighed, "I know, they're always beautiful…but think about it. We're looking at light that's probably over seven thousand years old, and in all that time, no one has seen it until now. It makes me wonder…if there was anyone living out by one of those stars, would they see everything that happened here in seven thousand years?"

She looked closely at one of the brightest stars, and began thinking, as she had for a while now, that maybe one of those stars had a world she could visit. But there was no way for her to get there, unfortunately. Maybe if she still had her spacesuit, she could have flown there, but it was far too small for her now anyway, even if it was still intact. Instead, she was content for now to just sit and dream about it…

Something odd happened, though…she suddenly realized that the bright star she was looking at wasn't a star at all. It moved very slightly from its position. Bubbles scratched her head and thought, _Hmm…that's strange. Maybe it's a small meteor or something. I wish I could have found a working telescope…_

The light picked up speed, heading down towards the horizon, near a group of distant mountains, where it was undoubtedly going to impact. It never did…the light abruptly stopped in the sky, just above the mountain peaks, and hovered there. Bubbles gasped slightly as she sat up, then flew out from the greenhouse a moment later to get a better view.

It was at a long distance, so she decided to fly over quickly, staying low to the ground just in case. As she got closer, it became visible…a curved spaceship made of some metal that looked almost like gold. It hovered almost completely motionless over the mountains, the only sound a low hum from its engines.

_Aliens_, she thought. _Well, while it's nice to see that there's still life on other planets, I'd better find out what they're doing here…_ She carefully flew in towards the ship, looking for a way in. The entrance wasn't readily apparent, though, so she moved up towards one of the tiny viewports instead.

Inside, she saw a group of creatures seated around a table. They were mostly purple, with green spots up on top of their bulbous, squid-like heads. They wore black suits with gold trim, and their two large black eyes were each set with a single red pupil. They were talking, but Bubbles couldn't hear what they were saying. She pressed her ear up against the viewport, listening intently with her ultrasonic hearing.

She heard a little through the 'glass'. Even though they were speaking some alien language, Bubbles' natural power of language comprehension allowed her to understand them. One of them said, "No, that is unacceptable. The scans of the planet were all wrong."

"I tell you, there was plenty of life here!" another protested. "Enough to power _all _our weapons. Enough to give us the power to annihilate as many worlds as we wished!"

"Yes, but it's not here _now_," the first one pointed out. "Perhaps something happened to them during our forty years of hyperspace travel."

The second one shook his head and said, "Well, whatever the case, it doesn't matter…I _am _picking _some _life down there. It looks like whatever destroyed them left some wildlife."

"Excellent," the first one said, grinning a toothy grin as he looked at a screen in front of him on the table. "Begin the collection process as soon as possible. It may not be much, but it should supply us with power to eliminate _one _world, and that's all we need…"

"Yes, my lord," the other two said, and the group of them got up from the table, leaving the small chamber they were in. Bubbles gasped and moved away from the window, hiding next to it to avoid being seen while she thought over what she just heard. _They're going after lifeforms on the planet? That means Bulba, and the other flowers! _She narrowed her eyes…_Well, no one uses my flowers as fuel as long as I'm around!_

Without further ado, she reached down and grabbed the edge of the spaceship. The ship wobbled a little from side to side, as though trying to get free, but before it could, she whisked her arms up, tossing the spaceship high into the air, on its way back to orbit. She dusted off her hands and watched it disappear, then started back for home. _Well, that was easy enough. I'd better keep my eyes open, though…they'll probably be back…_

* * *

Lord Xirta gripped the edge of his seat as the ship regained control, shouting, "What in _Thraxon _was that?"

Glotax, at the console, said, "Your excellence…some powerful force has thrown us back into the orbit of this world!"

"How is that possible?" Xirta demanded.

Off at a science station, Yequa "Sensors are picking up a single life form below…very powerful. It is apparently what tossed the ship."

"Hmm…" Xirta rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "This Earth creature could be a nuisance. Or maybe…what's the energy reading on it?"

Yequa scanned some more and said, "Extremely high! I am picking up another high group of readings nearby…not nearly as high, but there are many thousands of them."

Xirta grinned evily and said, "They will supply us with all the fuel we will need. Activate perimeter security systems, and take the ship back down to the surface to collect some of those lifeforms. And if you catch sight of the Earth creature that threw us, set weapons on stun and incapacitate it. I want it alive…"

* * *

Once back at the greenhouse, Bubbles stuck her hand up over her eyes as she peered off into the distance. _No sign of them yet,_ she thought. She started looking around in all directions, including up, realizing that they might have circled around before coming back. If they were going to come back at all.

_I can't let them take the flowers away,_ she thought,_ especially not just to be their power source. _She shuddered at the thought. All those flowers, being fed through a machine or whatever, being drained of all life. _Whatever I can do to rescue them, I'd better do…but for now, all I can do is wait…_

She didn't have too long to wait, because at that moment, she heard a howl through the air as she caught sight of the ship descending towards the planet almost from right above her. This time, it was surrounded by a shimmering green field of energy. _Some kind of forcefield,_ she figured. _I'd better be careful…_

The ship swooped down towards the edge of Townsville. Bubbles flew in an intercept course. As she did, several bright blue bolts of energy suddenly blasted out from little ports on the hull, streaking towards her. She dodged most of them quickly, although one was coming too fast at an unexpected time, striking her in the chest.

The blast knocked her out of the sky…she plummeted towards the ground, but recovered before she hit. Shaking her head, she felt a little woozy, her vision blurring a little. _That didn't really hurt,_ she thought. _They must just be trying to knock me out…but why? _Since she had been spending so much time studying, Bubbles found it easier than before to quickly come up with a logical explanation for things like this, and so she promptly realized why they were trying to knock her out. _If lifeforms are their fuel, then they probably want to turn me into fuel too!_

More of the blasts were streaking towards her, and she wove between them to avoid being hit again. Still, she was dizzy, and just barely managed it. She powered up her eyebeams and fired a shot at the ship, the beams striking against the ship's protective field. It was shaken a little, but the field was still intact.

Bubbles backed up quickly and took some cover around the edge of a building, wiping her eyes. _Rrgh, _she thought, _I shouldn't have fired my eyebeams while my eyes were all blurry like that…I can't see a thing…_ She kept her ears open, listening to see if the ship got any closer or was about to fire, which she slowly cleared her vision.

A high-frequency whine filled the air, and she peered around the corner curiously. As everything came into focus, she saw the ship hovering still, with a blue cone of light shining on the ground below…one of the flower patches. Gasping, she flew out from around the corner and started heading for the ship. By the time she got there, though, a sparkle of blue lights shimmered across the flowers, and they vanished.

"NO!" Bubbles shouted, flying up to the ship and trying to punch it, energy field and all. A green spark of electricity seemed to flare up as she punched…Bubbles yelped and fell from the air again, clutching her arm. This time, she hit the ground before recovering. Lifting her head from the dirt, she heard a sound…the energy weapons firing again. She looked up in time to see them streaking towards her, then in an instant, everything went black.

* * *

Bubbles regained consciousness roughly a minute later. She strained to open her eyes, as she groaned, "Uhhnn…." She blinked a few more times, then looked at her surroundings. She was lying on the ground in the center of a large glass tube, which stretched from the floor to the ceiling. The tube itself was in the center of a larger chamber, filled with all kinds of different computer consoles and other devices that she didn't recognize. They were being manned by several of the aliens.

"Lemme out!" she shouted, pounding on the glass, which amazingly held up against her strength. Realizing there wasn't anything she could do to break out just yet, she slumped back to the floor and waited.

A door on the side of the chamber opened, and the lead alien she saw before strode into the room, flanked by two others. This alien strode up to the side of the glass, while one of the operators at the console said, "Lord Xirta…the prisoner is secure."

"Excellent," Xirta said, smiling triumphantly at Bubbles.

Bubbles glared back at him and said, "What do you want from me?"

Raising a slight eyebrow, Xirta remarked, "Fascinating…you can understand our language. Well…in that case I can tell you. Whatever you are, your life force contains significant energy, enough to power our most powerful weapons for a long time to come. And that wildlife…"

"Leave the flowers alone!" Bubbles pleaded.

"Now, why would we do that?" Xirta said. "Each of them also carries a considerable amount of power to them. At least, more than an average lifeform's. We've only taken a small sample of them so far, but we will collect the rest after these are absorbed into our energy systems."

Bubbles watched helplessly as a round glass sphere was loaded up onto another device…in the center of the sphere were some flowers, probably about a hundred of them crammed together. Once it was locked down, the operators started pressing buttons, and a soft glow surrounded it.

"Wait, _no!_" Bubbles cried out, but it was too late. As the glow faded, she could see the flowers inside, but their color had been drained…they were gray and lifeless. As she watched, horrified, they unhooked the sphere from the device, and as they jostled it, the grayed flowers inside crumbled to dust.

Bubbles buried her face in her hands, crying. Lord Xirta grinned at her through the glass and said, "Do you realize that from merely a hundred of those…'flowers', as you call them…we've gained enough energy to destroy a small planet?" As Bubbles looked up at him through her tears, he continued, "And you…you have much more than even that. With your power, we shall become nearly invincible. The galaxy, perhaps even the universe, will be ours!"

"I…I won't let you…" Bubbles managed to say.

Laughing, Xirta said, "Your power may be great, but you can't stand against us. Nothing can stand against us. Now, I suggest you quiet down, and save your strength. The process of transferring your energy into our systems is quite painful, and with how much you have by yourself, it will also take a long time…"

He signaled one of the operators on the console. Bubbles braced herself against the glass, afraid. As the operator punched some buttons, a glow came from the floor and ceiling of the tube, bathing an eerie light over her. She clenched her teeth and tensed up as she felt the energy very slowly being leeched from her. It was excruciating, but she tried to hold out against it…

"Don't struggle, you can't get free," Xirta claimed, watching the power levels on their systems rise.

_Only…one chance,_ Bubbles thought…._gotta…make it…work…_ She tried her best to pull in a full breath of air, and finally did it. Once she did, she opened her mouth and let out a loud, piercing scream. The intensity of the sonic waves pushed against the glass, causing cracks to start to form.

The aliens all took an involuntary step away from the tube, as Bubbles kept the scream going. The cracks became wider slowly…it was taking all of Bubbles' effort just to ignore the pain and push all of her air and strength into keeping that scream going. Finally, after what seemed like ages, the tube shattered outward, raining broken glass down upon the stunned spectators.

Bubbles landed on the ground outside the remains of the tube, falling to her hands and knees and panting, trying to recover her strength quickly. Lord Xirta didn't give her the chance, though, and shouted, "Seize her!" and the guards immediately started to close on her position.

She pulled herself to her feet, though, and was ready. With a few quick punches and kicks, the advancing guards were knocked across the room, striking the wall and falling unconscious to the floor. A few of the operators fled as fast as they could, and Xirta, realizing that it wasn't safe to be here anymore, turned and ran as well.

Before he could make it out, though, Bubbles flew in his way and grabbed him by the front of his suit, demanding, "Where are the other flowers you took?"

"We…we processed them…already…" Xirta answered.

Gritting her teeth, Bubbles pulled a fist back and was about to strike him, when more guards came into the room, armed with weapons this time. Before they could fire, though, Bubbles dropped Xirta on the ground and flew to the far wall, bracing her shoulder and ramming right through it.

On the other side of the wall was a larger chamber, running vertically in the ship. Energy pulsed through a long tube that ran from ceiling to floor in this room, making a loud humming sound. _This must be the ship's energy core_, she thought_, probably filled with all the energy they stole from the flowers now. Enough to annihilate whole planets. I have to destroy it now, while I have the chance!_

Bubbles focused her eyebeams upon it…the 'glass' outer part heated up and started to melt. Xirta and his guards appeared by the opening she had made in the wall, and he shouted, "Stop! You fool! You'll destroy us all!"

It was too late…her eyebeams finished burning through the core and ripped through the energy within. Bubbles shielded herself with her arms as the core started to self-destruct. Without another moment's hesitation, though, she flew straight down, ripping through the floor and flying through three more decks before emerging from the bottom of the ship. Once she was free, she continued her descent towards the surface of the Earth far below, and behind her, the entire spacecraft exploded in a massive fireball, raining debris down from the sky.

She paused to catch her breath, watching the smoke dissipate from where it exploded, and wiped off her forehead. Part of her wish she could have saved the ship, maybe used it to travel off the planet, but she never could have, knowing that they were being powered by the flowers' life force. She felt bad for her lost flowers, but was relieved that the others would be all right…not to mention any other world that the aliens might have obliterated, had they gotten away with it.

She started back for Townsville to break the bad news to the other flowers. _They're strong, _she thought, _they can take it. Besides, it could have been a lot worse. Either way, we should hold a small service for the ones that were lost…that will make them feel better…_

**__**

THE END


	8. Remorse

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 8: "Remorse"

Carefully lowering the dropper to the mouth of the test tube, Bubbles peered cautiously into the side as she added a single drop to the contents. The green liquid in the tube changed to a deep red-orange color and started to fizz. Excitedly, Bubbles called over her shoulder to Bulba, saying, "I think I've got it this time! It's actually working!"

Standing back upright, she looked across the equipment strewn across the table. It had taken her forever to scrounge up enough unbroken equipment and unspoiled chemicals from several cities before she had enough to build this little lab of hers. The table sat inside the greenhouse, up against one of the sides, so that she could be near all of her books, not to mention Bulba and some of the other flowers.

_It took me two years,_ she thought, _but I've finally got it! I bet it'd only take me a fraction of the time to duplicate a formula now!_ She put the test tube down carefully in a rack, next to another one containing a similar formula. There was very little bit of that formula left, but now, she had a way to make as much of it as she needed.

When that alien vessel exploded two years back, she searched through the debris, looking for anything useful that she might be able to salvage. Any useful technology was destroyed, but she did find a container that was intact, and the seal was strong on it. After breaking it open, she found its contents: some kind of fuel. She surmised from the markings on the container that it was probably used to power smaller devices on the ship, like a liquid battery.

It was rich in energy, that much was certain. A single drop of it managed to power the Time Portal for a second, a feat which required many standard power cells from Earth. There wasn't very much of it…she had been studying up on her chemistry, so she decided to try to figure out a way to duplicate the formula in order to make more. It wasn't easy; all of her first attempts resulted in something that looked and acted similarly, but contained no energy.

She finally found the key to its power. It had to be created a certain way, such that the energy released during the bonding process was trapped within the molecules themselves. It had worked, and she found herself another major step closer towards her goal. Powering the Time Portal would be no problem now…she just had to redesign its system, and she was all set. That, however, would be the biggest job. Despite everything she learned, the portal's inner workings and functionality were still a complete mystery to her…she couldn't even fathom how it worked.

_I'll figure it out, though, _she thought. _I've got all the time in the world._

This whole situation had strengthened her knowledge of chemistry. She knew enough about chemical research now that she felt she could duplicate _any _formula she could get her hands on. If she was able to duplicate an alien formula, anything indigenous to Earth shouldn't be a problem. _Not that I have anything to duplicate,_ she thought. _It's hard enough to find chemicals around here…and there's nothing I really need…_

Another thought came to mind…_What if I could get my hands on some Chemical X? If I could duplicate that, I'd…I'd be able to make more life! But all the Chemical X was destroyed…there's none left. And there's nowhere to find more._ She rubbed her arm…she had been working for hours today, and needed to just forget about chemistry for a while and relax…her muscles were getting sore, and…

She suddenly had an idea. Examining her arm where she rubbed it, she thought, _Wait…wait, I have all the Chemical X I need to make more, in my own cells! I only need a little bit, not too much! Just a drop of blood or something, and I can extract the Chemical X for study!_

Extracting it would be the problem, though…a regular needle couldn't penetrate her skin. She had Duranium, but it was still in the form of those swords, which seemed kind of dangerous to her. Thinking quickly, she tried something else…she simply bit her tongue a little on the edge…not too hard, just enough to break the skin a little. Wincing in slight pain, she carefully lifted a slide and squeezed just a few little drops of blood out from her tongue onto it.

"I'm fine, Bulba, it'll heal," she said, carefully setting the slide down on the table. She began examining it with her equipment, and thought, _All right, Chemical X…show me your secrets…_

* * *

"Eureka!"

Bubbles always wanted to say that, and she figured this was as good a time as any. The Chemical X was surprisingly easy to isolate and extract, and even easier to duplicate. Perhaps this was only because she had been working for years on a much more complicated formula that wasn't even from this planet, but this one seemed like a breeze in comparison. Only a week's work yielded the results she was hoping for.

Lifting the test tube in front of her, she smiled as she examined the black liquid inside. "If I'm right," she said aloud, "this should be Chemical X! Or something similar at the very least. Well, there's only one way to find out…but before I do, I'd better have a backup plan…"

She worked with the chemicals some more…barely an hour later, she had developed something else she needed: Antidote X. This surprised her even more than her speed at duplicating Chemical X. After all, the professor had told her once that Antidote X took a whole day to make. She wondered what this meant…perhaps she had surpassed the professor's knowledge of chemistry?

Now, with both the chemical and its antidote, she was ready. She walked over to a bowl nearby and looked down at its contents. It made her very nervous, though…after all, this was the only set of components that she had been able to find in its entirety. Blossom's were too far scattered to find again, half of Buttercup's was still missing, and Butch's were completely disintegrated. Boomer had never broken down, so it was impossible to revive him, but Brick…

She looked down at the snips, snails, and puppy dog tail in the bowl, and closed her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes again and reached out very slowly, adding Chemical X to the mix. _No turning back now!_ she thought. _Just be ready with the Antidote X!_ She backed up quickly, clutching the needed test tube to her chest and waiting.

There was nothing at first, and she was beginning to wonder if maybe the Chemical X didn't work…but then, the bowl shook slightly, and then erupted in a bright flash of light. Bubbles shielded her eyes, as the glow slowly faded, and she tightened her grip around the test tube, ready to throw it.

A figure came into view finally, hovering above the bowl. It was Brick, all right…he was still his younger self, complete with his red shirt and cap, not older like Bubbles had become. Brick blinked his eyes a couple of times, but before he could do anything else, a wave of Antidote X splashed across him. He shut his eyes for a second, holding his arms up in front of him protectively a little too late…in the next instant, he fell the short distance, landing in the now empty bowl.

Bubbles had mixed feelings…on one hand, she was almost giddy with excitement over seeing someone else alive, but on the other hand, she felt her anger rising, seeing one of the ones responsible for the whole mess in the first place. She composed herself as she drifted over to the table and looked down at Brick. He couldn't really fit in the bowl now, so his arms and legs were hanging over the edges of it. He wiped the Antidote X from his face, sputtering, "Wha…ptthh…what the…"

"Brick?" Bubbles asked softly. She was trembling a little…it had been two years since she saw another sentient being, and eight years since she had really spoken to someone from _Earth_ before, way back during her little excursion through the time portal.

Brick blinked and looked up. He looked confused and lost, but a second later, he tensed up and clenched his eyes shut again, gripping his neck with both hands. He gasped for air, and Bubbles thought, _His memory's coming back…I hope he'll be all right…_ Brick finally relaxed after a few moments…he was able to breathe again, but he still breathed heavily, and very slowly opened his eyes again.

Bubbles hoped for the best, and said, "Do you know who you are?"

"I…" Brick said. "Yes, I'm…Brick…I remember now…oh…no…"

"What?" Bubbles asked.

Brick bit his lip and tried to keep from crying as he said, "I remember it all…I remember everything I did…all the killing and…and…but I know now it was wrong…I can see it all now…"

"It's the Antidote X," Bubbles explained. "It cleared the blocks on your memory, and allowed you to see the good of life once again. Are you okay?"

Brick sat up, rubbing his head, "I'll be fine…I think…I just can't believe…that I did all that…" He finally looked up at Bubbles again and said, "You, you're…Bubbles?"

Bubbles nodded, "That's right…I know, I look different now…"

"Heck yeah, you do!" Brick said, rubbing his eyes a little. "You're older! How long was I…was I dead?"

Bubbles sighed and thought, _I might as well tell him. _"That was about nine years ago."

"Nine _years?_" Brick exclaimed. "And someone's just getting around to reviving me _now?_ What was the delay?"

"Um, well…" she said, looking out of the windows of the greenhouse, "You see…"

Brick followed her gaze and finally noticed where they were. In a low voice, he asked, "Is…is that Townsville?…" When Bubbles nodded, Brick figured it out all too quickly. Try as he might, he couldn't prevent the tears that formed in his eyes this time as he asked, "B-…Boomer a-activated Mojo's device…d-didn't he?"

Bubbles was starting to tear up as well, seeing Brick's reaction to what happened. She managed to say, "Y-yes…and it worked…except for me, and one flower…that's all that survived…"

Brick was speechless for a moment, then whispered, "…I'm…so s-sorry…" He broke out crying, and Bubbles put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. Brick was in obvious remorse over what he helped do, and Bubbles felt the little bit of anger that was left fade away…

* * *

It took some time, but Bubbles explained to Brick everything that happened during the previous nine years. She told him about Bulba, about everything they went through, about the Time Portal…everything. Brick listened intently the whole time, shocked almost beyond belief. "Oh man…" he said, "…this must have been a nightmare for you…I don't even know what to say…"

"You know," Bubbles said, looking down at Brick, "Over the years, I've felt so angry at you and Boomer…angry for having built that machine, for activating it…I've imagined doing some terrible things to you two, if I ever saw you again. But…now, seeing you back to normal, in remorse for what you did, I just couldn't do that. I can see that you were just misguided…like my sisters. You would never have done such a terrible thing if you were able to truly think clearly about it."

Brick hung his head, "That still doesn't change anything…I did it, and now I gotta live with the fact that I helped kill everyone…" He brightened slightly and said, "But you said you were working on that time machine thing…any luck with it?"

"Well," Bubbles said, looking over at where the Time Portal was sitting, "I managed to find a suitable power source. I still need to change how it operates, though, and that could take a while…"

"Months?" Brick asked.

Bubbles shook her head, "More like years. I still don't know nearly enough to even begin tampering with it, without risk of ruining it somehow."

"Oh," Brick said. "Well, do you need any help with it?"

"Sure, but I'm not sure what you could do…" Bubbles said, but then looked over her shoulder at Bulba, "Hm? Oh, that's a good idea, you're right…"

Brick narrowed one of his eyes in confusion, "Who are you talking to?"

"Bulba, of course," Bubbles said. "Bulba says that you could always just help take care of all the flowers…that would give me more time to study."

Casting a sidelong glance at the flower, he said, "Bulba said all that?"

"Mm-hm," Bubbles nodded, then looked at Bulba again, "Oh, he can't hear you can he? I'm sorry, I should have realized that…you have to be able to understand their language."

"Ooookayyy…" Brick said slowly, not quite following. "Well, I'll help out however I can. What do I have to do?"

* * *

Bubbles studied the electronics book in front of her intently, stopping for a moment to take a sip of water from the thermos next to her. As she did, she looked up through the glass of the greenhouse to watch Brick in the distance. He was flying over with a watering can and watering one of the distant patches of flowers. Bubbles had given him a shot of the Chemical X to give him his powers back, so that his job would be easier.

She smiled…this was working out great. Thanks to Brick's help, she had been very productive in the past ten days on her studies. If this kept up, she'd have the Time Portal fixed in no time. Plus, it was great to have someone else to talk to, even if Brick really didn't have much to talk about. He mostly listened to Bubbles talk…that was enough for her, though.

Brick returned to the greenhouse, setting down the watering can and asking, "How's it going, Bubbles?"

"Not bad," Bubbles replied. "How about you?"

"Pretty good," Brick said. "I took care of the flowers on the north and east sides. I can do the south and west sides after lunch, 'k?"

Bubbles nodded in agreement, and added, "You're doing a great job, Brick! You're making this _so _much easier on me…"

Brick grinned and said, "Aw, it's nothin'…" He flew over to the supplies to find something for lunch. "I'm gonna fix myself a sandwich, oka—" He interrupted his own statement with a cough.

"You all right?" Bubbles asked.

"I'm fine, it's just kinda dry out there…" he said, waving it off. He started to prepare a sandwich, but was interrupted by some more coughs. He stopped everything else and doubled over, coughing loudly.

Concerned, Bubbles got up from where she was studying and flew over, asking, "Brick? Are you okay?!"

He could barely answer, managing to squeeze out, "I…*cough*…I don't fee— …*cough* *cough*…" Suddenly, he clutched his chest and collapsed on the ground. Bubbles was shocked, but scooped him up quickly and flew him over to some blankets, lying him down. Brick lay quietly, shivering.

_What's wrong with him?_ Bubbles thought. _Oh no…it's not the radiation, is it? No, it can't be, it's all clear now thanks to the flowers…_ She scooped up the Geiger counter and took a reading anyway. The radiation level were all normal.

"I…f…feel…c-cold…" Brick stammered, through his shivering teeth.

Bubbles wrapped a blanket around him and said, "Hang on, I'll find out what's wrong with you…" She glanced over at the table with all her chemicals and thought, _Maybe that shot of Chemical X I gave him to give his powers back was only temporary…maybe it's some kind of withdrawal as it wears off…_

She spotted something amiss, though…the vial that had contained the Chemical X now contained some clear, oily liquid instead. She got up and went over to inspect it more closely. There was still some black liquid at the bottom, but it was slowly turning into the oily liquid. _It's unstable,_ she thought. _I saw this before once, a long time ago. Fresh Chemical X will last nearly forever, but once its been used and separated, it slowly breaks down. The sample I took from my blood must have become unstable once it left me, so my duplication of it is unstable too…but that means…_

Looking back at Brick, he looked in bad shape…she quickly flew over to his side again. Brick squinted up at her and coughed, "I…I'm gonna…die, aren't…I?" Bubbles said nothing, but her look told him everything. He closed his eyes and said, "It's okay…I just…wan'…rest a little…"

"Brick, hold on…" Bubbles said, fighting a tear.

"Bubbles…" he wheezed softly. She had to lean down to hear him better as he whispered, "…just…finish…the time…thing….don't care…if it means I…never come back…to life…" He paused and added, "…life of…the world…more important…do it…please?"

Holding his hands firmly, Bubbles nodded and said back, "I will…I promise…"

Brick smiled, and a moment later his skin started to glow, as the Chemical X in his body started to break down faster. He managed to say, "…g'bye…" before the glow grew too bright to see him anymore. Bubbles shut her eyes, feeling the little ruff break down in her hands, into his snips, snails, and puppy dog tail.

_That was it,_ she thought, wiping the tears from her eyes. _The last person I'll ever see until I get the Time Portal working again. He was truly changed…and if such a person can change and learn from their mistakes, then there really is hope for the world. I need to finish the portal so that I can make my own changes now. It is more than my duty, more than what is right…it's also a promise._

**__**

THE END


	9. Savior

**__**

SOLITARY VIGIL

By: Mark J. Hadley

* * *

****

Part 9: "Savior"

The sun rose in the sky, and Bubbles opened her eyes slowly. She got up from her bed and stretched, then got dressed, putting on a tank top and gray sweat pants. She left the greenhouse and headed for the Great Meadow, as she liked to call it, over the hills outside Townsville. It was time for the flowers' daily checkup, although she knew that, just as they had been for all this time, they would be perfectly fine. _They are always so perfect, _Bubbles thought. _But still, I must be sure that everything is just right._

She reached the edge of the meadow and landed, smiling as she gazed out across it. For as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a seemingly endless field of flowers. All of them were in their eternal bloom, their leaves and petals held high, just as Bulba's had been when she first saw it. The field was and always would be one of the most beautiful things Bubbles had ever seen.

Flying low across the field, she looked for any sign of problems with any of them. It was a long task, but after a while, she completed it. As usual, there were no problems. This was always amazing to her. After weaning them off of her care slowly, she had stopped directly taking care of them for a year now, and they were still flourishing just the same. She had made them self-sufficient, and they probably evolved in the process. Seeing the fruits of her labor filled her with happiness every time.

Of course, it had been a long time. Twenty years since the incident…during that time, Bubbles worked diligently on another labor as well: the alteration of the Time Portal. She had completed her studies, and had finally learned enough that she could start to redesign the portal. Although this had proven to be even more difficult than she had originally thought, she was confident that she could complete it.

This was her next task for today, so she headed back towards the greenhouse to get to work, giving the meadow a final glance over her shoulder as she went. It was so beautiful, like a great testament to the strength of life, and something that still brought her great joy.

* * *

It had taken forever, but she had found the flaw in the Time Portal's design. The professor had been preoccupied with creating a more or less stable gateway between time periods that he failed to take other aspects of time travel into account. A paradox, such that would be created by going back and making any kind of change, is something that had to be avoided at all costs, as it could cause irreparable harm. However, the universe seemed to have a built-in system to protect itself.

A timeline goes where its actions lead themselves. If one of those actions is the creation and use of a time machine, it is nonetheless part of the timeline still. Going back in time and making 'changes' results in no change at all…since such a change would result in a new timeline, what actually occurs is that the new timeline is still the old. In order for any future changes to still occur, the past will have to have remained the same; therefore, any changes that would be made in the future have already happened in the past.

This gives the appearance to the ones in the future that the future cannot be changed, and technically, it can't. The risk of paradox (in this case, the origin of the change being changed as well) prevents it, almost as though the universe had some built-in safety to keep it from happening. The effect of the changes happen _first,_ then the changes themselves come _second_. The key to making an _actual_ change to the future is to make sure that no paradox occurs, something that proved to be nearly impossible.

Bubbles had gotten quite knowledgeable and imaginative, and so she came up with a solution. The idea was not to open a portal to the past, but rather, to cause a _displacement_. By physically removing herself from her own timeline and doing a sort of 'cut and paste' into the past, she would become a permanent part of that new timeline. Her own origin wouldn't matter anymore, since for all intents and purposes, wherever she placed herself in the new timeline would be her new origin point, as though she just came into being at that point. Thus, she could make changes safely, and the risk of paradox becomes completely null.

This required a major overhaul to the Time Portal. Previously, it acted as a mere conduit to the past, but now, it needed to do much more. Her modifications were nearly complete, though. Now, the portal window was widened, and was horizontal instead of vertical. She added a small platform beneath it that she would be able to stand on, such that the ring of the window surrounded her. Theoretically, it would project an energy field around her and displace all the matter within it to the new point on the timeline.

She also had to add in a ton of redundancy checks for safety. If the displacement didn't work, she'd effectively be separating herself from her own origin, which could cause her to cease to exist, as a worst-case scenario. These safety systems prevented that. Another problem was the fact that displacement required even more power than the portal used before. Thanks to the alien energy source, that still wouldn't be a problem, but a new problem arose because of it. Due to the intense field of energy, it could cause unpredictable effects during displacement, and no amount of safety systems in the world could hope to cover them all.

Thus, there would still be a risk involved, but Bubbles didn't care. Succeed or fail, she would never return to this time again, but even if she failed, the world she left behind would still prosper. Life was growing again, and it wouldn't be long before the flowers would cover the entire planet, at the rate they were going. She was confident that they wouldn't need her anymore. Her solitary vigil had ended, and it was time for her to move on…

* * *

Bubbles made a few final adjustments to the Time Displacement device. It powered up, and she was able to set the coordinates. There would unfortunately be no way to test its operation beforehand, because if she sent _anything _to the past, no matter how small, it could disrupt the future, perhaps in ways worse than it was now. The only thing she could do was run a few final tests from this end.

"Temporal scanners are active," she said. "Time-space coordinates set. Power levels at maximum. It would appear that everything is working according to plan so far." She looked over at the single inhabitant left in the greenhouse, Bulba, and said, "I agree, the temporal drift margin should be set to as minimum level as possible, but the power it will require…I want to make sure I arrive in one piece, you know. But I can adjust it a few milliseconds anyway."

She made another adjustment, then stepped back to do one last status check. "Everything is set," she declared. "I can go whenever I'm ready now." She took a deep breath and turned back to face Bulba, "Are you sure you don't want to come with me? If I succeed in landing in the past, this future will be erased…at least if you're with me, you'll still exist…"

After a pause, she smiled and nodded, "I guess you're right. You _were _a part of Blossom, anyway. Don't worry…I'll see to it that you stay that way, for as long as possible, all right?" She waited, then laughed, "How true…Bulba, you don't know how much I can't wait to see them again…to save their lives, and bring everything back to normal…"

She had thought about something else…since nothing she did in the past would endanger her future, that meant she would be able to see herself, the Bubbles of the past, like she was a completely different person. She wondered if it would be possible that they could be friends…especially since she was so different now than she used to be.

Kneeling down next to the flower, she said softly, "Bulba…listen…you've been the greatest thing to happen to me throughout all of this. I…I don't know what I would have done without you. You gave my life meaning and purpose for so long, it's…it's so hard to say goodbye…" Her eyes started to shed tears as she continued, "I…I want to say that…whatever happens, you'll always have a special place in my heart…and that I'll never forget you, as long as I live…"

Bubbles brushed her hand across the flower's petals gently, straightening them out for the last time. Wiping the tears from her eyes, she stood up and said, "Goodbye, Bulba…" She turned and walked towards the Time Displacement device, picking up the only other thing she was bringing with her: a written account of everything that had happened in this timeline. Tucking that away, she stepped onto the platform and lowered the ring around her.

She looked at Bulba one more time, and managed a smile, waving, too overcome to say anything else. Finally, with a flip of a switch, she activated the machine. A shimmering field of energy surrounded her, pulsing with great power, until finally it vanished, along with Bubbles, into the past…

* * *

The shock was unexpected. _The intense energy from the transfer must be having an effect, as I thought, _Bubbles guessed. Another shock struck her, and she clenched her teeth. It wasn't really painful, just not expected. She focused on watching the transfer instead…the energy field around her carried her through the fifth dimension, but the trip was rocky, with sparks of electricity surrounding her.

_I hope everything comes out all right,_ she thought. _I didn't expect it to be this rocky. Too much interference from the energy! What if I end up off-course? I could show up far too early…or maybe too late…or in the wrong place…_

She spotted the destination ahead, but then a sudden surge of power ripped through the field. She tensed up as it passed through her, and passed out from its intensity…

* * *

A strong thud woke her up again. As she opened her eyes and looked around, she realized she was in the center of a small crater on the ground. Judging from its depth, she had been pretty high up, wherever the displacement had dropped her. _So it was off in space,_ she thought, _but hopefully not in time. This should still be a whole week before Mojo used his Robo-Jojo._

Picking herself up out of the crater, she saw that she was on the outskirts of Townsville, ironically not far from where she had used the Time Portal once before. She slowly felt herself to be sure that she was still there, and whispered, "Wow…it…it worked…I'm actually here! It _worked!_"

She was excited, and started to fly, but didn't get very far before she hit the ground. As she recovered, she thought, _The surge of energy that hit me must have temporarily shorted out my powers. Ah, but I feel them coming back. I'll be okay pretty soon._ She glanced up at the sky and noticed that it was dawn. The sun rose over the horizon, rays of light shining across the intact Townsville. She took a deep breath of the morning air, and smiled again.

"Well," she said, starting to walk towards the city, "it's time to pay Mojo a visit…"

* * *

About an hour had passed. She made her way further into the city, and her strength was almost fully returned. She still didn't want to fly until it was entirely back, so that she'll reach her full strength faster. Only about a mile from Townsville park, it had entirely come back to her, and it was time to hurry the rest of the way.

She took off towards the park, making a beeline for Mojo's observatory. _It's still intact,_ she though, spotting it. _That's good, it means I showed up before all the trouble like I expected. So far so good…now to find Mojo!_ Without so much as a formality, she burst right through the roof and landed on the ground inside, calling out, "Mojo! Are you here?"

There was no answer. She tried to remember if Mojo had been in prison or anything during the week before all the troubles began…it was so long ago, she had forgotten. She whispered, "Well, I know he'll be back this way, so maybe I should just sit and wait…but actually, while I'm here…"

She flew quickly over to a file cabinet and thumbed through it. They contained all kinds of different plans for weaponry designed to destroy the Powerpuff Girls. She passed over plan after plan, until she finally found the one she was looking for. It had a note attached to it, and reading over it, there was no question. This was the one.

"Neutrino Intracellular Neutralization Wave Emitter," she read aloud. "That's it…well, guess what, Mr. Mojo? Not this time." She held the plans up, and with a quick blast from her eyebeams, they were incinerated. She smiled confidently…now, no matter what else happened, the people of the world would be safe, at least from this device. Now she just had to make sure that nothing _else _would happen to them.

She turned to start walking back to the center of the observatory, when something caught her eye on a table. A set of plans were already unrolled on the table, plans for the Robo-Jojo. _Hmm, that's odd,_ she thought. _How long ago in the past did he make these plans? Had he been sitting on them for a whole week? I wonder what made him wait so long before he built it…that's not like him…I would have expe--…_

Bubbles gasped, staring in wide-eyed shock at the blueprints. There, she spotted an addition onto the plans: sawblade launchers, with 'Duranium Sawblades' scribbled next to it. "But…" Bubbles said. "But that means…I've been here already…on that one trip…and…"

She looked around feverishly for a clock or something. She spotted one above the telescope that listed both the time _and_ the date, and paled when she read it. _No…no, I'm a whole week off! It's…today! Mojo's probably over there right now! _She stared at the time and tried to remember…_ Wait, he probably just got there, I still have time to stop him! Yes, but I have to hurry!_ Without wasting another moment, she flew right out through the side of the observatory, flying as fast as she could back for home. _Hang on! Oh please…let me make it in time…don't let Blossom die again, please!!_

Her heart jumped into her throat as she saw, even from a distance, that the Robo-Jojo was already by their house. It's back was to her, but she could see her past self tugging on one of its arms…she couldn't see the other arm from this angle. Listening in with her ultrasonic hearing, she heard Buttercup's voice calling out, "Hang on, Red!"

_Oh no, _Bubbles thought furiously. _Oh no!! I've got to get there faster! There are only seconds left!_ She put all of her energy into her speed, moving faster than ever as she approached the house quicker than ever. Before she could get close enough to use her eyebeams, though, she heard Mojo saying, "Farewell, Blossom!" and the unmistakable sound of a sawblade being launched…

Bubbles' mind screamed, _NOO!!! _ She didn't slow her charge down at all…everything seemed to move in slow motion as she passed the side of the Robo-Jojo and saw the blade already halfway towards the arm. It held a struggling Blossom, who was now screaming at the top of her lungs. She was travelling faster than the blade, but not by much…it was going to be close, but there was only one way to stop it…

Screaming, Bubbles dove between Blossom and the blade, trying to knock it away. The blade ripped across her chest and up across her neck, from the angle she had been flying, and she fell out of the air with a cry. The blade was nudged just enough so that it barely missed Blossom, actually trimming a few loose strands of hair from the side of her head.

Buttercup and the Bubbles of the past both stared in shock at the new arrival, and Blossom looked down shakily as well. Bubbles lay on the ground far below, a small pool of blood forming around her. Mojo was taken by surprise as well, and in his distraction, the Robo-Jojo's grip loosened ever so slightly from around Blossom. That gave her enough leeway to move, and she broke free, tearing the claw off from the robot's wrist.

"No! I was so close!" Mojo shouted, but before he could say anything else, he was attacked from three sides by the Powerpuff Girls, who were punching stronger than before, smashing the robot apart easily and blasting Mojo clear from the cockpit. He struck the ground and was knocked cold. The robot tottered, then fell over, exploding.

The girls gave Mojo a quick glance to make sure he was unconscious, then the three of them slowly approached Bubbles. Professor Utonium, watching from the door of the house, came out as well. Blossom rolled her over on to her back…the wound was awfully deep, and Bubbles strained to take in each breath.

"Who…are you?" Blossom asked.

"I…I…" Bubbles gasped, having difficulty managing a response. _They probably don't recognize me…I'm so much older…_

"Blossom," Buttercup remarked, pointing. "Look at her eyes…is that…?"

Blossom gasped, "…Bubbles? But…" She glanced over at the past Bubbles, then back down at her.

Despite how bad she looked, Bubbles was smiling. She softly said, "It's…it's finally over…used the…professor's…ti…time…machine…"

The past Bubbles finally spoke up, saying, "…Are you…me?"

Bubbles managed a nod, but then closed her eyes. The girls leaned over her in concern, and she whispered, "Don't…bring me back…don't ever…bring any of…them b-back, Professor…leave them…to their…et…eternal…slumber…"

"Hang on, " the professor said, examining her wounds. "You'll be all right, just hang on…"

"Profes….Professor…" Bubbles wheezed. He looked her in the eyes, and she continued, "Take…this…it will explain…everything…" She managed to pull the book out from where she had tucked it away, and held it out weakly towards him. He slowly took the book from her.

Blossom looked up at the professor, asking, "Can you save her?" The professor gave her a sad look back, and she knew the answer. Looking down at Bubbles in tears, she cried, "No!"

Her voice barely audible, Bubbles said quietly, "I…lo…ve…you…all…" Her last breath escaped, and she went limp. Her last thoughts ran through her mind were, _Bulba…I did it…wherever you are, I did it…_A moment later, she started to glow, and in a flash of light, had broken back down into sugar, spice, and everything nice…

* * *

Bubbles looked down at the pile of components, then up at the professor in tears, "What…h-happened?"

"She's gone…" the professor said, hanging his head. "I'm sorry…"

"She…she saved my life…" Blossom said. "She saved me…but she gave her own? I don't…understand…"

"Me either," Buttercup said. "What's going on?"

The professor held up the book that the older Bubbles had given him, and said, "I have a feeling we'll find all the answers we're looking for in here. You girls take Mojo to the police…I'll take care of…of our visitor…" The girls nodded, and reluctantly flew off to clean up the broken robot and haul away Mojo. The professor, in the meantime, scooped up the components from the ground and went out back behind the house.

He found a patch of earth, and carefully dug a hole, burying the components. He covered them up with the dirt, and thought, _I know that whatever the reason for your sacrifice, it was for the good of everyone, and to save all our lives. I thank you…for saving my girls, and giving them a second chance._

The professor got back up and walked around to the front of the house again, opening the book and starting to read. He would soon discover the truth, about what had once happened, but what would now never happen…about how the spirit of one withstood and overcame even the hardest of struggles…and how, even faced with the bleakest of situations, life would forever flourish and survive…

**__**

THE END


End file.
